not to care about the Nursery's formal Assessments?

[pookamoo]

My DD is at a nursery 3 days a week, and spends the rest of the time with me (1 day in the week) DH (1 day in the week) and both/either at weekends.

The nursery is of course compiling their required Formal Assessment, which will go on with her to school when she goes (she's only 2 now, so not for a while).

AIBU to really not care about it?

If she wasn't in nursery, she wouldn't have been formally assessed, and would start school without it.

We have been given "vouchers" on which to write things she does at home which show her development (like talking, walking, making a cup of tea ). I am sure it is because they have noticed things she has been doing at nursery and can't talk to us about them because they don't know if we know she can do them, IYSWIM. Like, for example, I know she walked for the first time at home, and I told them that, and they said they hadn't seen her walk at nursery before, but if they had, they weren't allowed to tell us.

I'm not sure she will stay at nursery if DC2 comes along (TTC at the moment) so what happens to the formal assessment then? Who gets it, and does it just stop or am I expected to fill it in?

yanbu. unless there are any developmental worries, it's not really going to have any great future importance. I wouldn't bother filling it in, a general parental interest in your DD's development will be more than enough!

dc were abroad until Reception/Year3 so neither had any preschool assessment

My 20 week old is having an assessment day in a week or so.
He has a book with all sorts ticked already, a display with all the babies and their families on the wall.
Bloody ridiculous when the girls are sat around with whinging babies at their feet who want cuddling whilst they fill out the stupid books :(

Believe me, we don't enjoy filling them out either, we'd much rather be playing with the little ones :(

Oh and the schools don't use them! AFAIK the reception class use a completely different assessment so anything we do is of no use to them.

Ofsted require settings to 'work in partnership' with parents - that's why you have been given the 'vouchers' as they give paper based evidence. We stick ours in the child's special book along with lots of photos. drawings, etc which the parents receive when they leave us.

As for the walking bit, we personally would never tell a parent a child took their first steps with us, that's something that should be special for you to see

Any paperwork should be yours. It's up to you if you want to pass it on to her school or not. They may have transistion documents, but again you should be able to see these if you wish.

I appreciate that juneybean

It's helpful that you say that cate, I'm just not sure what they want to see on the voucher.

I mean, she cleans her teeth, puts her baby doll to bed, gets out her own cup and bowl in the morning, sleeps in a bed now rather than a cot, can carry on a conversation, is bossy, points things out to us "Look Mummy, look, a horse!" do they want to know about all this stuff? I am pleased and proud and interested in all of it of course, but I would have thought it was normal for an almost turned 2 year old.

What kinds of things would you expect parents to report in to you?

The nursery has a separate "activity book" which parents and staff take turns to complete which has photos and drawings etc. (which reminds me it's my turn and it has been waiting about 2 months, oops!)

YABU just fill it with whatever you think is correct. End of the day you might think its pointless but sounds like the nursery say it has to be done. It wou ldnt really take much time, you have written loads about what she can do etc on this thread. Just stick that lot on.

squarehat I think you are missing my point.

We are expected to continuously do them, I think, but we are never asked for them, they give us the vouchers every so often, but they haven't ever asked for them back.

My point is that all this assessment, which comes from a government directive, seems so excessive. mamatomany says that her 20 WEEK old is being assessed... but if he (and my DD) were at home, nobody would be assessing them.

The vouchers are called "WOW" vouchers. I think "wow" every time I look at her, so I could probably put down every PFB thing she does!

I used to work in nurseries before dd, so I know what you mean. They are pointless and not actually used by primary schools.
Children need to be children and not assessed when they should be playing. That's the main reason my dd will not ever be attending nursery.
Also I think that part of the reason nurseries have such a high staff turn over is all the paperwork.

It really makes you wonder how small children survived before all this claptrap. OFSTED has a lot to answer for!

Wow, hello ilovesooty - is this the one of TES fame?

YANBU, IMHO it's all a pile of pap. My only experience with all this is as a mum of a recent nursery attendee (now in reception). One of my DD's pals who attended two different nurseries was assessed entirely differently by each setting, work that out! And on the subject of Ofsted, for my DS who's about to start with a childminder, I didn't even bother to check the CM's Ofsted report, as I feel my own observations and opinions as a parent are way more important and meaningful than anything Ofsted could tell me. I also didn't bother to read her two lever-arch files of policies, I did informally discuss a few things though, which is far more insightful. I can only imagine how long it took her to compile all that paperwork though. First time round when choosing a nursery I did read all the Ofsted guff, and many reports read as though they could have been written by someone who never even visited the setting. Same goes for school Ofsted reports, huge variation in quality of information, for our local school which I think is fantastic, the Ofsted report gave a score of 2 for every single criteria and some bland statement with no detail, same as for our next nearest school.

YANBU - they are completely stupid, and I say that as a teacher. I hate the fact that children are assessed every day in childcare/school settings up the end of the Reception Year. The only time when observations etc are useful are when the child has a disability, and it might be useful to look back and see how much the child has progressed over the years, and what kind of special help he or she might need in the future. But, for children who are developing, for want of a better word, 'normally,' they are a waste of time, and take the carer away from actually meaningfully being with the child.

A couple of years ago I was the Nursery teacher in the Nursery class of a state primary school. I was told that I had to spend 10 minutes each morning and afternoon doing an observation on a child, for which I followed them around and wrote down everything they said or did. Then I had to spend a further 10-15 minutes writing how what I just observed matched the objectives that they were supposed to be meeting that year. I also had to carry a pack of post it notes and a pen in my pocket, so that I could jot down anything I saw them do/say that could be used as evidence of meeting an objective. I also had to photograph their models, imaginative play, way they were with friends, etc and annotate them. I felt like I never had enough time to actually be with the children or teach them anything, as I was constantly assessing/observing them!

Also, I had to assess them within six weeks of them starting the Nursery, citing the evidence I had collected, and again when they were halfway through their time at Nursery, and again when they left. I had 26 kids in the morning, and 26 in the afternoon, so that was 52 profiles to keep up to date. I was forever staying late and updating a profile. At the end of the summer term when I was frantically trying to finish the profiles of the kids who were moving up to Reception in September, I was told by the Reception teacher that it didn't really matter what I said they could do - she had been told to assess them all as being quite low achievers when they entered Reception so that when they left Year 6 with good SATS results (if they still exist when they get to them) the school will look like they've done a good job on kids who entered school 'achieving below the national average' as OFSTED puts it. I just wish I had been told that at the beginning of the year so that I could have spent quality time with them instead of observing/assessing their every little movement!!

Also, once the child moves to the next stage, ie from a private nursery to a nursery class, from a nursery class to the Reception class, etc, the information is very rarely looked at! When your daughter moves on her information will be glanced at to find out the useful things such as if she has any allergies or behaviour issues, and then the new setting will start to assess her all over again! It is totally ridiculous and I am not surprised to have heard that hordes of childminders have left the prefoession as they got into it because they wanted to spend time with kids, not write about them every minute of the day!! I don't actually have a child yet, but if/when I do, if for whatever reason I can't give up work, I would definitely look into finding a trusted friend to pay to look after the child, who was not registered as a childminder, and so who would not have to waste time writing about things which I like to think that as a mother I could see for myself anyway!!! Sorry for the rant, but this issue of assessing such small children so regularly really, really annoys me!!