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For those of you lucky enough to enjoy the full summer break, hope it's relaxing enough (and dry enough!) for you. We have some forum and article reading suggestions for you if it's proving too long...
We'd also like you to take part in our poll to determine the issues most impacting your EYFS practice over the first year of its implementation. The results of this will be developed into a presentation for delivery in September, so it would be good to get as many responses as possible to make it truly representative. You can read more about it and vote here.
The July limerick competition is over, and the winners have received their prizes. But there's no respite. The August competition asks you to identify the subject of a number of photographs, which isn't as easy as it may appear. Find out more here!
We're delighted to welcome Manchester and Bristol City Childminders to the FSF LA scheme. Teachers, practitioners, and other providers from Manchester, and childminders from Bristol City can now register and subscribe free of charge (visit the LA index page to learn more).
We'd like to welcome back members from the following authorities, which have renewed their LA subscription - members need do nothing, their individual accounts will automatically be re-subscribed:
Welcome back to you all!
Men in Early Childhood a Problematic: Why we are where we are- perhaps?
Richard Harty outlines the current issues concerning men in the early years workforce and describes the outcome of the first "Men in Early Childhood" summit in New Zealand.
Storytelling
Following on from Juliet Mickelburgh's articles on promoting reading and using stories to plan stimulating activities, she now turns her attention to how young children can be involved in telling their own stories.
Using "The Gruffalo" as a Focus for Activities
This is the first in a series of planning ideas using a big book as the starting point.
Beginning with Books
This article introduces a new series of planning ideas that use a big book as the starting point for a variety of experiences within the Areas of Learning and Development. 'Beginning with Books' examines early reading skills and attitudes towards how children learn to read, as well as how to prepare for planning with a focus book.
Child-initiated Learning
The last in a series of articles examining recent developments in our understanding of how children learn. Here, Juliet Mickelburgh looks at what is meant by child-initiated learning, its presence in the EYFS, and how it influences good early years practice.
Here's a small sample of some of the discussions since the last newsletter:
Attainment on entry - tracking in year R
"...just wondering if anyone has found an easy way of assessing/recording/ the level of your new year R's when they arrive? I know the Big O are very interested in this and since Baseline does not exist anymore, I thought I would ask what you are all up to?..."
Planning for the six areas outdoors
"...I need to set up the garden in the six areas but would like some input on how to go about it. Such as what resources do you need for each area. We have the usual water, sand, painting, we have bikes, but what l want is really a defined area for each learning development with suitable resources..."
What does a day in your Reception class look like?
"...I'm trying to get my head around what a day in Reception will be like with all the new provisions etc. (since i was last in FS). So please could you share what a typical day looks like eg-what you do when they first come in etc-when you fit phonics etc...."
Men in Childcare
A new forum area for discussions on how to tackle this problem area accompanies the article above. This first discussion makes interesting reading!
Tracking Progress - anyone using the Primary Strategies' Progress Monitor?
"...I've been playing around with this excel document which you can download from the National Strategies site.
Is anyone else using it? Do you find it helpful? Any hints and tips?..."
Staff appraisal form
"...I wanted to give something back to the forum, as you've all been so kind in answering my questions. The attached form is a combination of two forms I found on here, with some changes of my own. I'm planning to use it for staff appraisals next term (I'm committee chair), hope some others find it useful..."
Aspect EYPS petition
"...Just following on from quite a few posts I've read recently about pay and status for EYPs, I wanted to share this link to a petition raised by Aspect. If this is something you would like to add your name to, click here. Currently they only have 75 signatures - so hopefully we can add a few more!..."
How Many Observations?
"...I work in a small nursery which has 2 baby rooms, a toddler room and my Pre Scchool room. I have an Early Years Advisor who comes in every 4 months or so and the rest of the nursery have an advsior who has come in twice in the last 2 years. Following advice from my EYA the Pre School room make observations of what we feel shows the child's knowledge, interests or areas for developing and over a month try to get an obesrvation in each area of learning for each child. We (I have 2 nursery nurses) then do a fortnightly discussion sheet which we use to take 2 children each from our key groups and decide how to plan for them in an area they have interests or weaknesses. All of this then goes into my weekly planning for the whole room and I try to separate the development matters and activities for younger and older children (I have from 2.5 to 4.5 years).
The advisor for the rest of the nursery came in today and told the other staff that they should do an observation for each child in each area of learning each week (6 obs a week per child). They should then plan for each of their key children in every area each week - each Key peorson has about 6 key children each which means on a average week each adult would have 36 activites to do - in addition to free play and adult framed activities...."
Local Forum discussions
If you subscribe via one of these LAs, why not pop in and join in on the current conversations? (NB - you'll only be able to access the pages if you're a member from that authority). A Southampton member is enquiring about the availabily of grants for small capital purchases here. Norfolk's 242 members are saying hello to each other here. Bristol City Childminders seem very shy at the moment and haven't replied to Vanessa's welcome message here. And City of Sunderland practitioners would like to talk to each other here. Remember, your local forums are only visible to you and your local colleagues! If you want to receive an email reminder whenever a new topic is started in your local forum, read 'Tips and Tricks' below.
More of a general useage suggestion this month. In recent times we've noticed that there seem to be an increasing number of frivolous posts in serious discussion areas, combined with a rapid increase in posts from some members, and we believe there are unofficial 'post count races' occurring. Most of you, happily, will have no idea what I'm talking about, but if you are tempted, please avoid becoming involved in this. It may seem like a bit of harmless fun but invariably leads to a dilution of the normally high quality of FSF conversations. It also doesn't enhance the reputation of the individual members, as it's fairly easy for regular visitors to spot. It is always worth remembering that the quality of a response is far more important than responding to every conversation, whether or not we have anything to say.
Of course, this isn't to discourage non-serious topics, which is what the lounge/golden time area is for - and since conversations there don't contribute to your post count, no-one can accuse you of trying to participate in post count races!