Leadership - supporting staff to see the whole child
Friday, May 11, 2012
While observation forms an important part of both planning and assessment at Southwark Primary School in Nottingham, nursery leader Leisa Towle recently identified staff who needed more support to undertake it effectively. She explains how this involved helping them to understand what to observe, when and how.
We perform two types of observation: formal and incidental. Training was implemented to support staff in identifying opportunities for incidental observation, focusing on child-initiated activities and those incidences when they were working alongside the children in enhancements. We also clarified what each type involved:
- Formal observation is where the staff member watches the child from a distance and notes everything they do and say over a short period of time. This is then analysed to identify the child's achievements in each area of learning.
- Incidental observations are the observations that we call the 'wow' moments, when a child really demonstrates what they know and can do naturally through their play and exploration. They demonstrate a level of knowledge or understanding not previously observed.
We look for evidence to go towards the child's assessment against development bands and/or profile points. We also note their levels of involvement according to the Leuven scale. Another essential element to this type of observation is the child's own comments on what they were actually doing. It can often be totally different to what you thought you had observed. Finally, we identify what the next steps need to be for that child.
Formal observations are fed back to parents in regular parents meetings, and also used to help complete assessments and inform planning. Incidental observations can build a detailed picture of the individual child and provide important information about their interests that can be fed into planning meetings to ensure that the enhancements we provide are suited to the children's needs.
