Alistair first gave us the opportunity to write about OP&L in February 2021 and for more detailed information, please refer to our previous blog posts on abcdoes.com. OP&L is an assessment tool, developed by us at Barnet Early Years Alliance (BEYA). We wanted to give our practitioners back time we felt was wasted collecting unnecessary evidence. Who is this evidence for? We know that it is through our interactions that we get to know our children best. We believe that if we are behind an iPad capturing the moment, we cannot be part of the moment. We wanted to share and be a part of our children’s fascinations, their curiosities, the awe and wonder. It also coincided with the key objectives of the … Read More
Good Level of Development – A National Picture.
This week I launched a project that I am doing in the North West of England in conjunction with our Ofsted Big Conversation steering committee. The idea for the project came about after Ofsted released their findings in relation to the number of children who achieve a Good Level of Development (GLD) at the end of the Reception year. This is their Good Level of Development by Local Authority map for 2017/18. You can find it here The North West region, where I live and worked for my entire teaching career, has a high number of Local Authorities where the attainment of GLD is in the lowest National band. The idea of the project is to provide some really cost … Read More
The Power of Joyful Learning.
Most UK schools went back for the new school year this week. Lots of practitioners will have had a sleepless night before their first day back. It doesn’t matter how many years you have been doing it and how familiar you are with your team and your space, there is something nerve wracking about that first day. If it is unsettling for us as adults – imagine what it is like for the children! It takes TIME to become comfortable in your surroundings, TIME to get used to new people, TIME to understand the rules and routines, TIME to feel part of the gang. These early days are hugely important and can have a massive impact on children’s wellbeing, learning … Read More
Gap and Strength Analysis
This is a blogpost from 2014 – but worth considering when you are thinking about your new intake… I know that I go on about it a great deal, but if you are going to have a really successful learning environment, then your provision has got to be linked to assessment and broadly levelled. If not, then you don’t really create learning spaces, you just create holding spaces. The environment you set up should change to match the needs of your current cohort. Not just on an annual basis, the change should happen termly in response to the information that you get from your summative assessment. At the risk of sounding like Miranda’s mother, that is what I like to … Read More