CPLD day 7 and interim tasks

[Ajames]

Hi all,

Attached are the resources from today. Please read the resource for the ‘Mosaic approach’ and discuss in this tab:
– Reflect on how you / your setting really listens to the children?
– How does this connect to British Values?
– How does this link to the concept of ‘ cultural capital?

Please also upload your interim tasks here prior to the next CPLD day:
-Using the prompt sheet: Interview a SENCO
-Using the pro forma: Conduct a critical review of parent partnerships in your setting

I’ve also attached some research from David Whitebread as discussed.

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[LaurenClay]

I found the article really interesting and totally relatable.

Staff are passionate about the child’s voice in my setting and this was picked up at the last Ofsted.

An example, recently the display board was blank after Christmas and I just did not know what to do with it. It was dull. One day before xmas a parent had donated (quite frankly) a bag of rubbish… however, in this bag was a little door. So we put the door on top of the display board and totally forgot all about it over xmas. The children had not even seen the door yet. When the children returned one of the children noticed it. The whole class became absolutely fascinated by what may be behind the door. We called a circle time to discuss and the children planned a whole theme! So much so that it totally inspired us to change our provision. We are mostly ITMP but now we had to incorporate this idea of a theme because the children got so much out of it. It exploded! Parents were involved, we documented so much of the child’s voice, so much so we made a whole slideshow video (will happily share the link, just have to ask parents first) and showed the children who were amazed at becoming “Youtube stars”

Throughout the week the children and parents were making comments about other things they’d like to see and explore at the setting. So every week we magpie these ideas and suggestions and ask the children to plan the activities, which now goes on the display board, re-named “the working wall”. We put up any work they have done at home to show they’ve been talking to their families about it, photos from home or the setting and eventually the wall builds up to be a huge masterpiece of progression. We also ask the children to give themselves goals that they want to achieve. It can be to get up and sing to their friends, learn to do their zip, or anything at all and this is displayed for them too.

I could go on all day, I’m super passionate about this stuff. But if you’d like to know more about what we do at Smiley Pre-school I’ll happily lead a tour or zoom session or even write a blog about it!

We often discuss morals and feelings, for example with the door, it had become a fairy that lived there (the children’s choice) so we often talked about the fairy being lonely, bored, we gave it songs, stories, left activities for it to play with. We shared all of this with parents for them to get involved too to discuss further with their children and wish us. So lots of BV and CC going on there 🙂

[sarahsaunders]

This sounds fantastic would love to see your video if you get permission to share by your parents! I love the idea of a working wall as the children feel they get ownership and respect each other’s voices, opinions and work!

[summertynan]

Within our setting we are really good at listening to the children, we make sure they have finished what they have said before trying to ask questions about what they are talking about. I think this is good practice as the children then take this on board and do the same thing when they are talking to their peers.

Communication is always positive when talking to the children and the staff members are always using positive words whilst in the setting.

[kdilworth]

I was really amazed by the approach in this article, in particular the idea of involving children in decision making processes for the setting itself. We are thinking about revamping our outdoor space (so very similar to the article) and it has absolutely not occurred to me to get input from the children, because I simply didn’t think that they would be capable of helping us make decisions! However, I think it will be really valuable to listen to the children’s opinions on the existing space when thinking about what we keep/revamp/introduce. This could be done using the mosaic approach – so interviewing them, asking them to take photos, draw their favourite thing in the garden etc.

I think we do listen very well to what the children are saying in our setting. Staff often listen to children’s requests and act upon them. For example, we have a turtle bus that we take the children for walks in, and they often request this. Staff will almost always grant their request (as long as staffing etc allows). Also, staff listen to children’s requests during an activity and extend the activity based on what they have said. This is particularly the case in our upper nursery and staff will often be found doing unplanned things the children have suggested. The staff are very good at taking the children’s ideas and running with them.

However, I was struck in the article about listening to children not just by listening to what they say, but by observing them and seeing what they do. Of course some children are quieter than others and it is important to be aware of those who don’t make as much noise or don’t respond to questions as much as others. We probably need to be better at looking out for these children and ensuring they don’t get ignored.

[KathrynLlewelyn]

I found this really interesting and will definitely be sharing it with the rest of the staff in my setting.
We listen well to the children in the setting but as reading this I related it to some staff not having patience sometimes and finishing what they think the child is going to say. I recently gave my staff some training on SST which relates with this and I think this will be a really useful article for the staff to read.
Being an in the moment setting the children are in full control of how the days go and the staff are great at extending the learning through their play by listening and observing. By having the setting fully child led it enables us to really get to know our children and their interests and you can see how confident every child is because they have that independence.
I would love to get the children to talk about what they think of the setting and what else they would like to have as I think that will be really interesting.

[NIckyb]

Brilliant ladies – yes the whole point of the Mosiac approach was to capture children’s ‘ voices’ in as many ways as possible’ ( not just form what the children were literally saying).

One way that the researchers achieved this was by getting the children to take them on a tour of the settings and tell them what they liked / didn’t like( they recorded this) , another way was through giving the children cameras and asking them to take photos of areas of the setting that they did / din’t like.

You may want to think of other ways that children ‘tell’ us their likes / dislikes – facial expressions, emotional reactions, children’s drawings, story telling , playing with puppets , are they accessing all the areas of the environment etc etc!!

[linhquanscitt2020]

This was a very interesting read. In my setting, I feel we listen well and will give the children time to express what they want to say before answering their question, as an example. As a setting, it is not always consistent. As practitioners, we need to be patient, take time, be open and have respect when children choose to talk to us. I think this article will be really good to share with colleagues and managers in my setting. It will also be good to hear their thoughts and reflect on our current practice on how well we listen to young children and what we could do better within the setting.
I am also currently working with my room leader and manager to introduce more resources and possibly different areas in our garden. We have some resources such as a sand pit, a few scooters, bikes and a mark making board. Considering the point made in this article with listening to how children use existing outdoor space, I will use this to help plan/implement some changes in our garden.
I enjoyed today’s cpld day. It has given me lots of ideas that I could bring to our setting and share these with colleagues, particularly the musical learning opportunities.

[debs_99_uk@yahoo.co.uk]

A few years ago i had to do a lot of research into the Mosaic approach as part of my degree. I had to carry out a project in my setting using the different methods to hear the child’s view. In my setting i have mixed ages from 3 months – 5 years in one room so found this a challenge but also a way of picking different approaches for different children depending on their age and ability.

For one part i chose a group of the oldest children to take me on a tour of the setting. My setting is very small and i don’t think the children really understood what i was doing with them. They loved it when i said they could go in normally out of bound spaces like the office which created the most conversation but the room got rushed through. We took the camera with us and i asked the children to take photos of all their favourite things. It was interesting to find they took photos of their friends, the staff and of their friends photos on their name tags or on wall displays, not so much of the equipment. A conclusion i drew from this was the importance to them of their friends.

I then drew a setting map with them. I don’t think the children had any experience of maps before apart from pirate treasure maps as they asked “where we will put the X to mark the spot”. I tried to explain that it was our room and different parts represented different areas but it was hard for them to relate the two. We printed off photos and we stuck some of them on the map. The photos of the children’s friends we made into books which the children loved. I wanted to get their ideas of what new things we could add to the room so i gave them an early years catalogue which we looked through and cut out pictures.

As part of the project i observed children in the room, especially the non verbal ones to see what areas they accessed and interviewed the most chatty ones.
Looking back the children gained so much from this project and i learnt a lot about what areas of the room are accessed, what are not and what is important to the children.

I think i’m off to buy a new children’s camera as our last one broke but want to give the tour and book making another go as it a whole new group of children now. My change project is about the outside area to it would be good to use the mosaic approach to gain the children’s views on changes i could make.

[mannsam@aol.com]

Just wanted to share an amazing 3 minute clip with you that shows creativity, musicality, numeracy, PSE, cultural capital, S&L, literacy, UtW, physicality – and absolute joy….I love it!

[LaurenClay]

Please find attached my interim tasks.

Thank you 🙂

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[LM1234]

As a setting, we place a large importance on the ‘unique child’ and listening to each child’s voice. We use in the moment planning to identify a spark based on an individual child’s interest and use these to plan activities and daily provision. We regularly ask the children “What would you like to do today?” or “What shall we do on this table?” and reflect on the things that they have enjoyed that day at tea time. We ensure that our resources are easily accessible and at the children’s level however I have noticed that some staff members can focus too much on keeping it tidy and avoiding mess rather than tuning in to what the children are asking for when choosing other resources. We offer the children choice throughout the day including during song and rhyme time by asking each child to choose a song from the box. This also applies when choosing stories to read. As well as actively listening to children, we also observe them through play which helps us to identify preferred areas of provision. We also place a huge importance on supporting the children to explain their thoughts and feelings and do this in a number of ways. Within my room, I have created a choice board with visual cues to support a child with additional needs who is non-verbal. Where possible (due to COVID 19), we offer free flow to the garden where children can choose to stay inside or to go out. This supports cultural capital by providing opportunities to explore the outdoors for children who may not have a garden. We also celebrate a variety of religious festivals and ask the children to take the lead on telling their friends all about it. With regards to promoting British Values, we clearly outline our golden rules and involve the children by taking pictures of them demonstrating the golden rules which are displayed around the room. We listen to the children and support them to resolve conflicts together. As part of my activity plan for CPLD Day 6, I have planned an activity where the children can take pictures using cameras. I will encourage them to take pictures of their favourite things at nursery. This will hopefully support the children who do not have the language to tell us themselves.

[sarahcampbell]

I found this really interesting. The offer of maps, tours and taking photos in a way of finding out what children think is definitely something that I will be taking back to my setting to share these ideas.
We are really good at being there for the children and picking out interactions with the children. I feel this is one of the strengths. We listen to the children well and are flexible with what we do and what they want to do. They are able to be inside or outside at any point.
I like how the mosaic approach focuses on children’s everyday experiences.
This will really help to get to know the children more in depth. I am looking forward to the children using cameras as a way to share more of what their interests are and what they like to do.

[zoejestico]

I really enjoyed reading this article and will defiantly be sharing it within my setting. I think as a setting we listen to the children; we have a system in place where two children are council leaders, on a half termly basis we have meetings with the children, and talk about their likes and dislikes of the setting, we discuss activities and resources which we may have or which they would like added onto the wish list. Children also use post it notes to recorded using smiley and sad faces around the room, this really helps us to provide a changing environment to meet their needs. We give the children the time to answer any questions, or anything that they may say. I can relate to some staff whom do not always have the patience to wait for children to answer, this is something that hopefully sharing this document and bringing up this conversation with out staff will allow them to reevaluate their own practice. Children have the ability to choose what they would like to do they have free access to all of the resources in the setting and understand that what they get out they have to tidy up. We have a voting system for our story book for circle time before lunch, on entering the setting the children can put a token into the pot relevant to the book they would like to hear.

[zoejestico]

Please find attached my completed tasks.

Thank you

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