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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Thread for new2CM's ponderings and CM Club input

16 replies

BALD · 13/01/2011 17:04

Review assessment systems to ensure that all areas of learning and development are given equal importance and observations are analysed consistently to plan for the next steps in learning

-develop further self-evaluation and review systems, in order to identify and plan continuous improvements to the childminding service

-develop further the systems for children who attend more than one setting, to ensure effective continuity and progression by sharing relevant information with each other

-develop further systems that provide a summary of children's achievements to ensure their progression

Okay so I'll take each point through one by one

CM CLubbers yoo hoo we need you Smile

-consider extending opportunities for children to develop their awareness of diversity

-develop self-assessment and reflective practice to improve outcomes for children

-consolidate the maintained records of risk assessments by including assessments for specific outings and for the individual animals in the home

-obtain information from parents in advance of a child being admitted to the provision, regarding who has legal contact with the child, and who has parental responsibility for the child

-improve the frequency of the evacuation procedures to ensure all children cared for are able to become familiar with them

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:05

ah crap my pooter mangled up my op fgs

try again:
Review assessment systems to ensure that all areas of learning and development are given equal importance and observations are analysed consistently to plan for the next steps in learning

-develop further self-evaluation and review systems, in order to identify and plan continuous improvements to the childminding service

-develop further the systems for children who attend more than one setting, to ensure effective continuity and progression by sharing relevant information with each other

-develop further systems that provide a summary of children's achievements to ensure their progression

-consider extending opportunities for children to develop their awareness of diversity

-develop self-assessment and reflective practice to improve outcomes for children

-consolidate the maintained records of risk assessments by including assessments for specific outings and for the individual animals in the home

-obtain information from parents in advance of a child being admitted to the provision, regarding who has legal contact with the child, and who has parental responsibility for the child

-improve the frequency of the evacuation procedures to ensure all children cared for are able to become familiar with them

The points are now as above, not cut through the middle with my witterings Blush

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:18

Review assessment systems to ensure that all areas of learning and development are given equal importance and observations are analysed consistently to plan for the next steps in learning

This is an easy trap to fall into

I use a sticky pad system, date and name of each child, note what have observed, then stick it onto a sheet divided into the 6 areas, into the bit that you think it falls into

So, ''Child X sliced her banana and stacked the slices into a tower on her plate, using counting words 1 2 5''

This could come under Physical (building, fine motor work, slicing) CLL (using speech) Creative (making) PSRN (using counting words)

Stick where you think that obs falls then at the end of your assessment period (I do 2-monthly, others might do termly, monthly, whatever) have a look at all your stickies and see if you have fewer in one area

Take longer obs occasionally (again, you might do one a week, one a month, whatever)and add to the child's file, with photos/work produced and write down what you think the next steps could be

so the slicing banana next steps could be - buttering toast/building towers with wooden blocks/sorting by number groups/looking at pictures of towers from around the world

This means that something like KUW isn't overlooked in favour of another area, for eg

Is this any good?

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:34

-develop further self-evaluation and review systems, in order to identify and plan continuous improvements to the childminding service

I keep a sheet in my OFSTED file, and note down improvements/changes made throughout the year and then use that for the SEF, because you've written it down it shows you are evaluating and rfeflecting

eg mine last year had things like - paving stones from road to front door relaid to eliminate uneven surface and making entrance and exit from the property safer for all/source funding for all-weather surface for the garden (funding not available)

I KNOW that the SEF can be done online, as a living changing, evolving document but my inspector was happy with this system

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:35
  • develop further the systems for children who attend more than one setting, to ensure effective continuity and progression by sharing relevant information with each other

A policy would cover this - do you have one? we can help you to create one

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:40

-develop further systems that provide a summary of children's achievements to ensure their progression

I use a 'grid' supplied by my early tears team, I highlight each part as and when the obs show achieved ( I overcomplicate by additionally colour coding the highlighter to tie in with the obs period I am looking at)

so say May/June - highlight Pink
July/Aug - highlight Green
Sept/Oct - highlight Yellow

this is because sometimes the child crosses age bands and it's useful to see at a glance that they are steaming ahead in one area and not progressing so quickly in another

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:51

-consider extending opportunities for children to develop their awareness of diversity

this not only means having multicultural toys to play with, you could put up a welcome poster in many languages, obtain dolls and figures with disabilities, books about children around the world, music from different countries, observe festivals not just Chinese New Year lol, do you have older folk who you could visit, this kind of thing

I have pictures of who I call inspirational people - President Obama, Natalie du Toit (disabled Olympian and paralympian, one of only 2 people who have achieved this) Cerrie from CBeebies, etc, in a frame on my wall

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:53

-develop self-assessment and reflective practice to improve outcomes for children

Have you done a SEF ? PM me and I'll arrange to email you mine if you like, to have a look at Smile

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:56

-consolidate the maintained records of risk assessments by including assessments for specific outings and for the individual animals in the home

This is quite important

I have RAs for lots and LOTS of outings

eg

Going to the park
Going to the woods
School run
Going to shops/supermarket
Going to soft play
Going to the library

and on and on it goes [rolls eyes]

we can help you formulate if you like

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 17:58

-obtain information from parents in advance of a child being admitted to the provision, regarding who has legal contact with the child, and who has parental responsibility for the child

This is a legal requirement

OP posts:
BALD · 13/01/2011 18:01

-improve the frequency of the evacuation procedures to ensure all children cared for are able to become familiar with them

No hard and fast rules on this; I do them half-termly AND when a child starts

Also I have a floor plan, laminated, on the wall, showing evacuation routes in red

Back later, time for supper x

OP posts:
HSMM · 13/01/2011 20:59

BALD - do you know what you're talking about? Too late at night for my little brain to understand Grin

BALD · 13/01/2011 21:08

hah hah

As clear as mud. possibly.

new2cm posted about this on a different thread and I'm hoping that she'll see this and take heart

x x x

OP posts:
new2cm · 14/01/2011 10:24

Hello, just spotted this thread! Thank you!

GoldFrakkincenseAndMyrrh · 14/01/2011 12:47

Not a CM but here's my two penn'orth. I'm of the strange breed that liks policies, planning, paperwork etc (and studies it quite intensively!).

Some of these are quite hard to answer without knowing what you've got in place already.

Review assessment systems to ensure that all areas of learning and development are given equal importance and observations are analysed consistently to plan for the next steps in learning

Assessment, my favourite :)

A BALD has already pointed out there are lots of ways of doing obs. A mixture of method is good - take a photo and say what the child is doing, what areas of learning the activity related to and then incorporate your next steps by suggesting related activities to each area of learning. Sticky notes are particularly good for noting the first appearance of a new skill or a word. The traditional ticksheet is quite good as a 6 monthly review of mindees skills and allows you to group developmental skills together to spot any patterns. It's also a nice commuication tool for parents - you give them a copy with 'now I can...' and if you've got a series you can have 'next I'm going to...'. Then think about how you can encourage this.

Obs where you do graphical representations of the toys played with/activities undertaken and the relative time spent with each can help you identify children's preferred interests and you can then almost reverse the planning process to promote skills by focusing on that activity, rather than picking a skill and finding activities to promote it.

Develop a way that works for you of linking what you see to the EYFS and, for bonus point, schemas. Dorset has a fab website (google Dorset early years schema) which gives you lot of linked activities.

develop further self-evaluation and review systems, in order to identify and plan continuous improvements to the childminding service

I think a little notebook or a file where you can spot an improvement you could make to the setting and note it down is a good plan. Also identify any times you've thought 'I wish I'd done that better' or any issues you have that you're not sure how to deal with. Then if it's something concrete you can achieve, tick it off e.g. going on a training day in a specific area, or you can use that note to demonstrate what a wonderful, reflective practitioner you are by evaluating what was good/not so good/needs fine-tuning or a total overhaul. Get into the habit of seeing every setback as a learning experience.

'I did well and this is why' is as valid an assessment as 'I could have done better and this is how'

develop further the systems for children who attend more than one setting, to ensure effective continuity and progression by sharing relevant information with each other

I agree a policy would cover this. Do you have permission to read communication books from school/write notes in them?

develop further systems that provide a summary of children's achievements to ensure their progression

Do you have a file for each child, which contains all their info, obs, learning journeys etc? I suspect this is something you do and the 'system' needs to be codified and organised better.

consider extending opportunities for children to develop their awareness of diversity

Everyone probably gets told this. BALD has good ideas!

develop self-assessment and reflective practice to improve outcomes for children

As with the improvements to the setting really. Improvements to you are improvements to the setting.

consolidate the maintained records of risk assessments by including assessments for specific outings and for the individual animals in the home

If in doubt, risk assess. Have a file and review them, say, 6 monthly. This is where keeping a diary for a week is helpful and why planning ahead can be a wonderful thing. A diary for the week allows you to see what activities you routinely do and ensure that you have a suitable risk assessment for each of them. Planning ahead helps you identify anything out of the norm and risk assess beforehand.

A small notebook on the go enables you to do a mini-risk assessment instantly before allowing children to participate in an unscheduled activity. Tear out and stick into your file, consolidate into a more formal risk assessment should the situation present itself again.

obtain information from parents in advance of a child being admitted to the provision, regarding who has legal contact with the child, and who has parental responsibility for the child

You probably just need a better form for this but include it in your contract etc and don't let anyone start until their file is in order.

improve the frequency of the evacuation procedures to ensure all children cared for are able to become familiar with them

Set a time period (6 weekly is recommended I think) and stick to it. Vary the time of day/week that you do the evacuation to ensure that all situations are covered and every mindee has had at least 1 evacuation practice every 6 months, even if you have to do it more frequently. If it doesn't go to plan then say so, use it as an opportunity to review and repeat within a fortnight.

new2cm · 14/01/2011 13:29

Thank you so much for all your ideas and suggestions - I am very grateful. I will definitely take on your advice. Smile

new2cm · 23/01/2011 19:00

I can not find the original thread. I wanted to answer the question, someone had about Nurofen and medicines containing ibuprofen and where it was suggested that childminders should not give ibuprofen to children in their care.

Here is the link: www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationdetail/page1/DFES-1448-2005

The statement is in a document called "Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings". Point 36 on page 9, states:
A child under 16 should never be given aspirin or medicines containing ibuprofen
unless prescribed by a doctor.

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