Clayhead - please come over here, would like to know more from you

[SchrodingersSexKitten]

Clayhead
I was fascinated to read on the other thread that overarching themes are not encouraged anymore. My DD is in a pre-school in France and teacher-defined, over-arching themes are very big; we are currently doing farms...but it seems to be a good way of doing it. Please explain why it's no longer the thing. Would love another perspective. What I see is my DD (aged 3.3) coming home from school saying, "the mummy sheep is called a ewe and the daddy is a ram and the baby a lamb and when the farmer takes off the wool, the sheep don't like it very much". It is far and away more than I ever teach her at home and I think it is great. They have visited a farm and the classroom is decorated with all sorts of farm stuff and they are learning about harvest, markets, animals, fruit, veg etc.

Love to know more.

the reason we dont do topics is because all the planning comes from the childrens interests. We have continious provision which in itself is your longterm planning. If I notice that a child is playing in the water with a bottle then I would think how i could extend his learning and what resources I could provide for the next week. I would write this on my enhancement plan, for example, squirty bottles with lids to work on hand eye cocordination. This would also be written in his learning journey with his next steps identified. So you have continious observation informing planning. I also know where all of my children are up to developmentally wise at any given moment. This method really works and is a lot easier than trying to think up topics. This is also what OFSTED are looking for.
What use is learning about a farm if all your children live in a high rise in inner London? Children learn best when they are taught in context.
Also, topics can be very limiting. For example, a colleague told me of a time she worked with topics in a pre-school. The children had expressed an interest in weaving so she took in a mini loom to do some with the children. The person in charge wouldn't let her do it. Because "we are not doing weaving until June"
There is nothing wrong with having mini topics that come from the children. For instance we just did a pirate dress up day and had a treasure hunt that came from a story book that some of the children had read.
The danger is in limiting the childrens experiences to pre-defined topics that sometimes are decided months, even years in advance and take no notice of what the children actually need to learn.