CM CLUB: Contents of your mindees individual folders?

[PinkChick]

other than contract, child record, consent forms, what else should i have in my folders?
For my obs, i use their daily diary and take lots of pics which are all over the playroom as well as playing on digi photo frame, the pics on display have NCMA stickers on them sshowing physical development, creative development and so on...so what else do i need in them?...am expecting an inspection at some point this year and want to get everything up to date
TIA

Mine have a tick list showing where they are in Foundation Stage. I got mine off the local council and it says where they are from birth, when they enter F1, F2, etc. I find it quite handy. It also makes it clear where EYFS stops. I write a summative assessment (report) for their parents each term and I keep a copy in their file, for Ofsted to read.

how do you do your report HSMM?...like Billy can now do x and y, where as last term he wasnt able to do z...etc?

Oh, I'm going to watch this with interest. I'm also going to abduct HSMM (she lives near me ) and I'm not letting her go til she's helped sort my system out!!! hehe Yes, she's VERY good and very highly thought of in the Ofsted world

i would love that tick list.. how did you get it? advice on approaching the council? who?please...

I got mine off ebay - some very nice lady put together an obs and assessment cd-rom which covers every learning aspect of the eyfs. Well worth what I spent. If you are attached to a Surestart centre, your coordinator should have access to the assessment forms.

Just marking my place, HSMM that report sounds like a brill idea. How long is it and what sort of stuff do you say? If you don't mind me asking of course!!

Report lengths vary. I make notes throughout the term of specific things they do ie on 25th January 2010 Child A counted to 10 while we were playing with the bricks. Then I go through where EYFS says they should be for their age. This helps me confidently tell their parents they are doing really well for their age, or I can tell them what I will be working on for the next term (ie shapes).

At the end I have a parents comments section. I email it off to the parents. Some of them add comments like Child A can do X at home.

I then print out a copy for their file.

I hate the idea of measuring children against a tick list, so I try and keep it fairly general, but it did help me identify a child with speech delay and gave me facts to back it up when I spoke to the parents.

The tick list may be available from your local council, nursery, pre school, etc. It has 3 rows, depending on which term the child was born in and then you tick off each term until they reach the end of Foundation Stage. Not an essential I don't think, but it helps me see where I am (Looney - your other half should have one in his pre reg course folder).

I'm going to steal that idea thanks HSMM!! Can I also ask how long your "terms" are, we aren't sure how long ours should be.

To answer the OP my folder have an EYFS overview in them; which is each area of Learning and Devlopemtn and the month and I tick which area we have covered each month. This would help me notice if I was spending too long on one thing but not long enough on other things.

We also have a "scrapbook" in ours which is basically a picture or 2 that summarises that month so at the end of the year the parent shave a nice little album. Oh and observations and any quite cool pictures/paintings they have done.

My terms are slightly loosely based on the school terms (3 per year), being Jan-Apr, May-Aug and Sep-Dec.

OP - I wish I could get parents to share a diary, but they either stay in their bags with no input from parents, or they disappear!