EYFS - Is anyone else struggling to get to grips with all the documentation?! HELP!

[triggerfish]

I cannot seem to find time to possibly fit in all that is required of the new EYFS between looking after children and running my own family and home. How do you all manage?

I don't! have 4 boxes of paper and files. doing it as and when. hoping to do an observation next week! very stressed.

When you say you are doing an observation next week, do you set aside time to do it or do you observe as you go along? I'm not sure how childminders are supposed to document observations successfully without halting a play scenario. I do use lots of post-it notes as my memory is rubbish. I guess it's fine for nurseries as they have other staff to back them up and allow them time, in work hours, to fill in assessments. I'm up til midnight and beyond which isn't great for family life!

got a new baby so i thought i would do a tick observation on him. then will do 1 for each mindee over next couple of weeks. that way i have an initial obs. does it make sense, i dont know.

should add, i have always done detailed contact books with milestones etc listed. just means im now doing it twice but in even more detail
still, i could just be doing the washing, ironing or spending time with my family

I have always done contact books for each child. I also do portfolios for each child which have lots of photos, comments and art work during their time with me. I can't believe this isn't enough.

I have always done contact books for each child. I also do portfolios for each child which have lots of photos, comments and art work during their time with me. I can't believe this isn't enough.

oops - sorry!

will never be enough. as we are working our way through it all, someone is in their office planning what we can do next.

trying to secure their jobs for the next few years I suspect! I don't think they have realised how few people will go into childcare as it's not well paid enough for all the hassle. The shame of it is that there are so many caring, fantastic people who love working with children who will just never make the academic mark. Its so short sighted.

hi all, I am just so far trying to do one ob per month per child, but even that is proving hard ! It is like you have to set time aside to do it, plus I would like some of the obs to be observing something different the child is doing, something new to them, to see the reactions, but whenever I do this I seem to have to intervene alot and forget about the ob !
Planing on from the obs I find hard too - I get the linking it to eyfs bit, and they have a few next step ideas, but still find it hard to plan next stage, when kids are so spontaneous, or just like to potter about alot -

Absolutely! When you have 3 children of different ages/stages, its not easy to plan for each one. I really like planning different activities which can be tailored to each child but children very rarely go according to plan and quite often want to do their own thing. Documenting that the children wouldn't comply would probably not impress good old ofsted!?

Today I did an observation
X enjoyed stacking blocks - she stacked 3 - I took a photo
I linked this to
Problem Solving Reasoning & Numeracy:Space, Shape & measures
I plan my next steps > finding new things for X to stack

Then tomorrow or next week I will observe X stacking with cups - I may take another photo

I write it all on a sheet and put it in a folder with the photos

Sorted

OMG - I was planning on becoming a childminder - Is this really whats involved? What happened to actually looking after the children - All this assessment is crazy!

From what age do the government deem such assessments are necessary?

Birth

Did you not see me on telly saying it was pointless badly implimented

you sound very organised katymac! Didn't see you on telly but would have loved to add some comments for viewers to hear!!? I'm not sure where it is all going? I'm all for ofsted and regular checks to make sure children are been adequately catered for but this is really quite ridiculous!

So far all I have done is taken loads of photos, and printed off some sheets from the EYFS disc.

Once I have all the photo's developed, I will write an observation, and link it to the different learning groups.

I have never been good at sorting out photo's, so this is my biggest challenge!

I've done the same as Katymac, a few one-liner obs per child per week, linked it to the Development Matters statements depending on the age of the child with a note of the next step or resource if applicable, then do 10 min obs every 4-6 weeks (this was recommended by NCMA). I find I can get the daily paperwork done in the 20 minutes a Balamory episode is on for (if my own ds aged 7 months is asleep or playing!), having said that, I only mind a set of twins 2 days a week, so I am fortunate in that that's not a lot of paperwork.....their mum is a infant school supply teacher with knowledge of EYFS and said what I'd done so far looked good but 'you shouldn't need to be doing this, you're not a nursery!'.....

I can see that for cms with lots of under5's the paperwork will be quite a lot...I have found though that having done 5 weeks of it, I'm remembering the statements and where I've seen things so it is a bit easier, but it's still taking time away from playing with the mindees - that's the reason for Balamory, I don't normally do tv.