Any infant teachers? Advice please.

[StickersOnTheDashboard]

I've been teaching for 15 years in Scotland. I've had all stages but gradually have ended up in P1. I love it and I'm good at it.

We have a new HT and she wants to see play, but the model she wants to use is making me so worried. I feel I've nowhere to ask apart from here. I usually have a full class of 25. No PSAs apart from 1-1s (and they cannot be used for anything else).

She wants me to get rid of all the tables and chairs and divide the room into areas (e.g. Writing, Funky Fingers, Numeracy etc). The idea is that I will have a small group with me at a teaching table and the rest will be in these areas playing and doing target tasks.

I have so many concerns and I feel like I am not being listened to.

• If I am teaching my small group at my teacher table, I will not be able to get up and check that they are actually doing their target tasks.
  
• The noise... I can only imagine it being soooo noisy and distracting.
  
• The workload. The model suggests 3 Literacy tasks and 3 Numeracy tasks set out per day.
  

I have suggested compromising with a taskboard but she has a fixation on them freeflowing in the room through the areas doing the tasks as they please.

I don't want to do this. I really don't. I think it sounds chaotic. AIBU?

[noodledoodler]

Have you had an opportunity to visit a similar set up and see the provision in action? That might be something your HT could arrange. That also might allow you to connect with a wider group of teachers who are using that approach. Just remember that a change as big as this should be as much about the process of you building new skills and approaches to your work and teaching style just as much as delivering an end product. Could you ask your HT to work with you on drawing up some kind of plan for your development in this area of expertise? At least then it would give her an idea of what you realistically need in order to make a success of what she is asking you to do, put a bit of the onus back onto her to support you in this process. Good luck, and as an above poster suggested, facebook can be a great way of connecting with other settings, try the ITMP page/group too for some ideas and support.

[drspouse]

I'm a parent rather than a teacher but my DCs' Reception class (two classes of 30 in a free flow area) did have 5 adults (two class teachers, 3 TAs). And it wasn't noisy. However, the same setup in an older building with a much smaller playground WAS noisy when we looked round another school - it is highly dependent on your school and its acoustics.

We are North of England and they still had free flow to the outside even in the winter.
One thing that may help is the notices they used on each area to say "X children can play here". And yes they had the sand area, the water table, some tables set up for today's craft or messy activity.
Before the DCs started the teachers made sure to reassure us that children who wanted to spend all day doing Lego would be redirected.

I also don't think you can do this on your own. In my DS' next school Reception had 15 and a teacher and a TA. Year 1/2 combined also had free flow and they had a teacher and a TA for 30.