When I visited Australia in the Summer I worked with lots of brilliant settings and met some amazing practitioners. One of my favourite spaces was St Mark’s Pre-School in Sydney. I am really pleased that I have managed to persuade Tinna (the Director of St Mark’s) to tell me a bit more about their ethos. St Marks is situated in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. St Mark’s is affiliated with Cranbrook School, which is located in Rose Bay (Junior) and Bellevue Hill (Senior School). St Mark’s is a coeducational preschool catering for 40 children a day. St Mark’s Pre-school was established by Cranbrook School and opened in 1944 with three teachers and sixty children, boys and girls. Our circumstances are quite unique … Read More
Early Years Assessment App
Now I know that not everyone in Early Years has got an iPhone or and iPad but there are a growing number of setting that I work in where the staff have been given one for teaching and assessment and they are a really useful tool. They not only create high level interest and engagement from children there are LOADS of appropriate apps and games that you can use to actually impact on teaching and learning rather than 'just playing' (not that 'just playing' is always a bad thing!) Here an iPad is being used for some phonic group work. Don't worry, the grip has been duly noted and acted upon! Even the 'pinkness' of the iPad cover wasn't putting … Read More
EYFS lesson/session observation proforma
Now then, often as part of my work I work with Heads and members of senior teams who are making judgements about attainment in EYFS. Most of the time these observations are carried out on the same formats that are used for Key Stage One and Two. The problem is that they are designed to judge a completely different curriculum that should be taught in a very different way to EYFS. Over time I have come up with a good few formats that I then tweaked in response to changes in the Ofsted framework and also what Heads have asked for. Yesterday I was back in Salford observing Natalie alongside her Head and Deputy (no pressure Natalie). The format that we used … Read More
Pack Away Pre-School Inspiration
After my conference work in Medway I was off to Hertfordshire to do some project work with the LA EYFS team. This is another interesting project for me, as it is not only diverse in the type of setting I am working with, each one has been identified by the LA as having lots of elements of very strong and unique practice. All of them regularly get visits from other settings interested in sharing their practice. My role is to work with them on an area that they have identified for further improvement and see how we can enhance it even further. Each setting has been given a video camera and have to record their journey – a bit like … Read More