What does "green" mean, in terms of foundation stage education?

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

There are colours apparently, one of which is green. What does it mean?

[doggiesayswoof]

Hmm dunno but bump.
How did it go?

[Ellbell]

Don't know if it's the same, but at my dds' school they use it to mark work in a way that is easily comprehensible to the kids. They have 'Green for Growth' (i.e. room for improvement) and 'Yippee Yellow' (i.e. good work). Was it something like that?

[Ellbell]

Sorry, forgot to add that they use highlighter pens to show which bits of the kids' work are either green or yellow...

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

It was OK in parts, bit of a waste of time in other parts. I think we will just have to see how it goes when he starts.

Thanks for jollying me along earlier, I always get into a state before meetings

[aintnomountainhighenough]

Oliveoil asked the same yesterday, see here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2402&threadid=354047&stamp=070710205241

Goodness knows why schools can't explain things to parents!

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

no, they were talking about some kind of assessment system they use in primary school which isn't usually discussed with parents. The teacher jokingly said "cover your ears!" to me. The colours mentioned were red, blue, green and grey I think, there may have been others

[meandmyflyingmachine]

Try this rather hefty tome

[doggiesayswoof]

Nae bother re jollying

Even I'm feeling grumpy about all the stuff in the links, and I don't even have a child in school. Do little ones really need to be assessed so much?

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

I find it all a bit skin-crawling too. Particularly as the SENCO we saw today at his new school was as hard as nails and seemed to view him as a problem

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

bumping in case there are any rogue teachers around here who can translate this gubbins

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

.

[meandmyflyingmachine]

There are descriptions for each colour on that link I posted.

[Mercy]

Not sure if I can do a link as I think it's a pdf format

"The stepping stones are not age-related goals and the number varies between
and within areas of learning. In some cases the stepping stones relate to an
individual aspect of an early learning goal, in others a group of closely linked
aspects have been brought together with one set of stepping stones.
Progression is shown by the use of yellow, then blue and then green bands.

It is likely that most three-year-old children in the foundation stage will be
better described by the earlier stepping stones shown in the yellow band,
while the later stepping stones shown in the green band will usually reflect
the attainment of five-year-old children. Practitioners will need to assess
children carefully and plan accordingly."

It's from a Surestart document.

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

Cheers. Apparently there are colour bands for Y1 and Y2 as well though, is that right?

[loopybear]

No KS1 goes into levels 1c upto 3. If children are still working at Foundation stage levels they will get P levels not colours.

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

oh god that's confused me even more!

have just been told ds1 was 'working at solid green level' several months ago (no comments on what level he is 'working' at now, or what "green" means, or anything). I know, I shouldn't care, he is only little etc - but I just want access to the same info the teachers have about him, IYSWIM!

[TooTicky]

Is his teacher nice?

[TooTicky]

I mean, the sort you can talk to and ask questions of? It makes such a difference.

And SENCOs jolly well ought to be nice

[whiskersonkittens]

Sad, pushy parent that I am I have all the stepping stones in one handy Excel spreadsheet. I even embarassed dh by taking it into first parents' evening with me

anyone who would like a copy is welcome to e mail me on [email protected]

[loopybear]

Green don't worry if your child was solid a few months ago in Green he's most likely progressed to working within grey. A school with good transition would be working within grey on the FSP during autumn term. Really don't get stressed green is good. I'd only worry if my DD was at the end of Year R in beige and no-one had raised there concerns about her earlier in the year. DH thinks DD should be star of the class cos she has a teacher for a Mum!!!

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

loopybear is that for the whole foundation stage, or the nursery bit, or Reception? My ds is starting Reception in September, we are having meetings with his old/new teachers and sencos because he is expected to find the transition difficult socially, this 'green' stuff is a confusing side issue to us!

[GreengottsTheGoblinBank]

I wish they explained all this stuff to parents and gave us access to the guidelines/assessment resources they use.