Obs, next steps and planning

[Ripeberry]

Am I right in thinking that Obs need to be done so that you can work out the next steps and then plan for the following weeks?
They usually say that we only need to do one Ob a month, but planning is every week.
So in reality we should be doing 4 obs a month to get the planning.
Or am I making everything too complicated?

Yes but an observation can be:
a photo
a post-it (so a sentence)
a narrative (half a page)

I tend to do 2 photos & 2 post-its (ish) a month - very easy

If I remember I do a narrative maybe once a term/half-term

I do a postit/wow moment when it happens, could be 1 a week or 4, this all feeds into my short term planning. I do a long ob when I need to look more closely at something the child is doing usually 1/2 a month but these can be a photo with links to the eyfs or a written ob or both.
I do what works for me with each of my minded children, you need to do what works for you to show how your obs and planning all link into the eyfs and the development matters statements.
My planning is often over a few weeks as the children in my care are all under 2 so so much is child led and we often don't do everything on my plan, I add to this as the week goes on. When my plan has been scribbled on so much I can barely make sense of it I start a new one!!!

I do general planning like a topic so of course we are doing autumn / halloween atm, this is for all mindees regardless of ages. The individual next steps planning is a specific thing to each child so their is no reason why you couldn't either incorporate that into a group topic or do a specific thing if needed.

You can make it as complex as you like personally with 7 needing learning Journeys 4 of which have to fit in with the schools curriculum I plump for the easy option

I think a little done really well is far better than reams of notes / obs that are naff.

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