Assessment 2013/14

Using the New Curriculum

As you must be well aware, assessment in the Early Years is a challenge now that they have change the curriculum. At a recent course run by our LEA, we met with other practitioners and it seems that everyone is doing something different, but basically the same.

There are many types of observations that is common in every setting:

• Photographs
• Quick observations as would appear on a postit or a magic moment
• Catch as You Can observations
• Small group observations
• Large group observations

It’s not until you look specifically at the assessment sheets that you see the differences.

The priority for every setting is showing progress.

Chinese New Year

Display and Resources

This year (2013), Chinese New Year is Sunday 10th February, although celebrations will take place for the entire weekend. I will be teaching the children about Chinese New Year the week commencing 11th February.

I do enjoy sharing Chinese New Year with the children in school. They have already explored Christmas and New Year a month before so are open to understanding that in China they celebrate New Year at a different time.

Chinese New Year is an excellent way to explore new cultures and talk about different ways of life. There are so many different resources and learning opportunities, there is even a story!

This is the Chinese New Year display in my classroom, it’s almost taking over one wall!

I am very fortunate to have a mother-in-law who can send me beautiful Chinese artefacts to show the children but there are a number of shops in my area which can supply easy to find resources.

You can also find resources for Chinese New Year from learning libraries.

I bought a number of the resources I use in my classroom from the China town in Birmingham.

I’m going to talk about the resources I have in my classroom based on the best of my ability, however if I say anything wrong, please leave a comment and let me know!

Maths is Everywhere!

Not Just in Maths Lessons

When children struggle with recognising numbers in the classroom I always ask parents to do number walks with their children because maths is everywhere!

This is the Maths is Everywhere display I have at school. I use it to illustrate that there are lots of everyday items that have numbers on them. There are always opportunities to share counting and number recognition with children.

It is incredible how prevalent numbers are in our every day environment.

As the collage shows, there are numbers on our every day objects such as house phones and mobile phones, computer keyboards, street signs, television remote controls and even television channels.

Watches and clocks obviously have numbers on them, but also car number plates and microwave controls.

Receipts, train and bus tickets, measuring tapes, bathroom scales and kitchen scales all use numbers, as well as the labels in clothes. I didn’t include house numbers on my collage but they are an easy one to spot as children walk to school, as well as bus numbers!

You could ask the children to do a number walk and see what numbers they can spot! The higher the numbers they can see, the more points they get! The children can count up the points and find out who is the winner!

Assessment in the Early Years

The 2012-13 Curriculum

Showing progress in the Early Years has always been difficult. The previous system of using profile points allowed practitioners to show numerical progress for all children from Nursery to end of Reception.

Many children would start in Reception at level 2 or 3, and would progress through the levels until they finished Reception.

Unfortunately, there is no current numerical method for showing progress nationally.

For our own records, in our Reception class we are trying to make sure we keep meticulous records of phonics, literacy and mathematics. I thought I would share some of my assessment sheets to help out other practitioners.

	Writing Assessment Record Sheet We have split up the basic statements for the writing targets from 30-50 months all the way to a 2c on curriculum targets. We looked at the main process the children go through to be able to write independently and put it into a table that we can use to help us guide our planning and to track pupil progress.
	Phonics Assessment Record Sheet This sheet is one in which you can input the children’s total scores for the term. So, if they know 12/20 phase 2 phonemes and so on, and tracks the progress they have made from the previous term. Obviously leave the progress columns empty if those areas haven’t been tested yet.
	Reading Assessment Record As the children begin to use their phonemes to decode words for reading and also begin to recognise more words, this assessment sheet allows the user to track progress through terms and also see where the children are currently.
	Number Writing and Reading Assessment Record I do like to keep specific records to help with my planning. I find it’s easy to waste time teaching children things they already know. This sheet allows me to target specific children with specific number recognition which I can jot down in my planning. It doesn’t actually take that long, either.
	Catch as You Can Observation Sheets These sheets could be completed by your Learning Through Play Manager, as they are working with children. However, we don’t want to be filling in sheets when we should be moving children’s learning on so I recommend targetting specific children, perhaps children who need more help or children who are gifted and talented to use these sheets as effectively as possible.
	Magic Moments We keep Learning Journey scrap books at our setting, where maths, literacy and topic work, photographs and magic moments are collected and displayed to show children’s progress through the year. The magic moments cards capture special moments the children share with you. For example, today I was invited to a space party so I asked the child what happened at a space party and wrote down what he said on the magic moment card. This will later be stuck into his Learning Journey The magic moments cards are fantastic ways of capturing sweet things the children say and making notes about their progress through snapshots.

If you have any ideas on assessment in the Early Years, please share!

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Learning Through Play

It’s about Developing Knowledge

I’m having a bit of a preach I’m afraid.

Members of staff working with older children can often think that all we do in the foundation stage is play.

I have told the children in my class that we work with the toys in the classroom, and the head teacher will tell me off if I let them play when it’s not play time. The children now delight in correcting me if I say ‘play’ by accident.

Children in the foundation stage work very hard when they are playing. They are developing relationships with other children, learning about who they are and how they relate to other people. If they actually do the activity as it is intended, they will be learning about numbers, shapes, writing, sounds and ICT.

The role of the Learning Through Play Manager is essential for ensuring that the goals in the Early Years Foundation Stage are met. It is not all about teaching knowledge but it is also about developing that knowledge.