planning/birth 2 three and diaries

[fedupwithallthispaperwork]

Hi there

How many of you actually do all of the above. I am struggling with all this paper work and now been told my planning not exstensive enough and b 2 3 needs to have a report of each child every 6 months for parents. HELP

bump

Hiya fed up. All I do is a termly plan then daily diary with photos as and when. Never done a report for parents, don't feel qualfied to do that. Who has told you this?

net work coordinator. how do you do plan, on pc

Sorry fed up, I got diverted by half term activities....yes I do a spreadsheet, using my desk diary as a starting point, ie May day, what can we do, oh yes make a Maypole in May(kitchen roll tube, paint it up, attach ribbons) then research other festivals or whatever. I plan to do X number of activities each term, OFSTED were very happy with this. This is one of the reasons why I have decided not to join my local network. I just could not bear someone adding to our huge burden of paperwork. HTH and bump for tomorrow's crew x

I do daily diaries - they're a great idea, but time-consuming (I have four under-5s for three days/week). Doing the diaries means that I'm actually not doing stuff with the children.

Planning - I have a weekly chart on a noticeboard. I make a vague attempt to put stuff on it to show what we'll be doing each day. I put photos of the children who I will be minding that day on the board too, and lots of other stuff that will impress Ofsted. (Get a laminator, best piece of advice I can give!!)

I also do monthly newsletters which include photos of mindees and what we've done the previous month, any info on courses I've done (but I take the p* out of myself), and anything else remotely interesting (or not!)

I've got of stuff written down on Birth to Threes, it looks great on paper but is very much there to impress (Ofsted). That's not to say that it's not useful stuff, because it is, but I managed to care for the children very successfully before it came along. And it's being phased out/changed soon anyway. Great. More paperwork.

I'm also on a network (more paperwork - yippee!) but have never been told about writing six-monthly reports for parents. Are you trying to get accredited?

Add to all of that all the itty-bitty other piles of paperwork we are obliged to do ... yes, I think we all know where you are coming from. I resent having to spend evenings and weekends doing it all. I love my job, but I do like to have a life. Doing all the paperwork does not make me a better childminder, but it does in the eyes of Ofsted. The parents I mind for are a little gobsmacked at the sheer quantity of stuff we have to do.

Right, I've had my rant - and none of it is of any help to you - sorry! Hopefully, it just helps to know that we are all a bit inundated with it.

However, if your network co-ordinator is telling you that you have to do more planning stuff, and you are struggling to get it done, then she should be giving you more help and support. Our co-ordinator is an absolute gem.

Definitely get stuff done on the PC, even rough notes look better typed. I started off with 12 pieces of A4 paper, one for each month, and just wrote odd things on it - specific, important religious festivals, mindees' birthdays, ideas for us to do (anything to do with leaves in the autumn, really simple stuff!) etc.

Crikey ... I did go on a bit, didn't I ...