Documentation at Boldon.

http://www.boldonnurseryschool.co.uk

I decided last Thursday that I would spend the day with the children at Boldon Outdoor Nursery. I wanted to get an idea of the flow of the day, the way the routines worked and how children operated in this space. It wasn't an easy day for the staff, with a number of casuals replacing the regular educators who are presenting at a conference. Having me here has added to the mix and I sense that things are a little different for the children and therefor for everybody. It's ok though. A few mishaps are met with patience, kindness, ever present respect for children and each other. 

ROUTINE

The day begins with children in their family groups and they all get prepared to go outdoors. This is a busy time and the staff need their wits about them. Children remove shoes, put on waterproofs, wellies and jackets, then have play materials available on open shelves while they wait for their peers on mats. This process demands independence as well as dependence on adults to support them. Shoes have a home in boxes with photos of children on each box. The children's belongings are on hooks. They don't seem to have as many bags like we do as everything the children need are supplied by the centre. Soon everybody is ready and out they go. The space has a myriad of exciting open ended and exploratory play spaces and the children are highly engaged. There is also an indoor space, a workshop, that children can access. Some days in the week there is an artist educator working in this space with the children. 

Hot chocolate and bottles of milk are available through the play time and children are free to get these themselves. At one point all the children are gathered around the fire for songs and a snack. Play then resumes until lunch time. All children come indoors and some are collected while others are given a hot lunch, as some stay all day. The water proofs, jackets and wellies are all taken off and shoes put on and the children again play with materials in their family groups until they are gathered for a group reflection, casual conversation or story as parents arrive to take the morning children home. The staff then manage a quick break before the afternoon children arrive and the routine begins again. 

DOCUMENTATION with Alison

As educators in early childhood this statement from Alison may resonate. "Documentation is something we are always grappling with. Although we've been working on it for years, we've never fully cracked it. There is so much we value, so many wonderful interactions, it's always hard to decide what will be documented and how." Sound familiar? 

Alison went on to share her expertise with me, and I must thank her here for her time and willingness to do so in her busy day. They work here from 8:30 to 4:30, but often stay much later and they only get a short break at lunch. 

So these are the things Alison shared with me. She began by pointing out:

*We need to consider the what, where and how, and this is dependent on the audience 

*We try to have a logic to how we go about it

I've noted here the various types of documentation that are developed and used at Boldon

Wall displays 

May be for parents, visiting professionals or the children

Based on big projects that have interested a lot of children

Involve children with a common interest or focus

 

      

Floor books 

Written with the children and document learning while it happens

Developed when children express an interest. 

Children and educators capture ideas through writing, drawing , mark making

Photos are taken and given to children to cut out and place on, usually by the next day and educators scribe the children's thinking

Possible Lines Of Direction (PLODS) are considered and developed by staff 

The projects go where the children lead

   Eg: an interest in sticks >> children attempting to join sticks >> introduce tools for joining wood >> a building project commences

Weekly journal

Each week a display is put up for parents in the form of a notice board with photos, quotes, items of interest or happenings during the week. The display includes a large book where a page is developed each week to inform parents of the children's learning, interests, focuses. 

Continuous provision

Provisions that occur on a daily basis are documented in a book available to parents and regulators. The environment is considered a third educator

Include the following titles: 

*learning opportunities, 

*role of the adult

*possibilities documented for each play area

These are the framework to the various provisions. Within this framework educators still consider:

*How it might be enhanced over time

*Plan for opportunities and possibilities. 

*How each learning area has the potential to hit all of the curriculum

Individual journals

Each child is provided with a learning journal. They include the following:

*Records of what happens for the whole centre

*About me page where parents contribute

*Key person profile that tells a little about the educator who is responsible for the child

*First days are documented

*Specific learning activities that the child has done and documented as annotated photographs

*Art work and educator reflection, often a photo

*Individual learning stories (parent and child friendly)

These are narratives written in first person 

*What I notice 

*Learning

*Possible next steps

Focus children. Each child gets a turn at being the focus child for the week and this involves parent input which is documented in the journal

*Send something home for parents

*Anything special, interests

*Notes from parent meeting and future directions for the child

*Key person comments and builds future directions for the child in response to the parent meeting. 

Assessment

Each educator needs to complete formal assessments on each child in their group, 26 per educator. These are required by Osted (our equivalent to ACECQA) and are based on their curriculum (similar to our EYLF)

Only one educator here is a teacher and there are 46 children attending daily. The legal ratio is 1:13 but Sue employs extra people to bring this down to about 1:8. The staff have varying levels of qualification that seem to be equivalent to our cert 111 and associate diploma

All educators have equal loads and responsibility in terms of documentation despite their level of qualification. 

Other forms of documentation   

The staff also document some of the key learning that they see taking place, using a journal, reflection style. Children may contribute also, but it's mostly the educators' ideas or thoughts. These are considered living, breathing documents that develop over time

For example

*A counting/numeracy book 

*Allotment book, what children are experiencing and learning from growing vegetables and keeping chickens

*Another example might be literacy and how children are responding to various forms

But wait, there's more

A parent book documents the learning and engagement of parents. 

A visitors book documents the responses, letters, thank you's from visitors

I asked Alison about the professional learning that was provided to support them in documentation. They have Professional Learning days, three a year, and all of the staff attended training for a day at Mindstretchers, with Kate and Claire Warden. This involved theory and presentations but also lots of practical hands on examples of how to use floor books, mind maps and journals. This helped them to come up with ways forward and they've been tweaking it ever since. 

All I can say is WOW! The work that is done is comprehensive, authentic and contextual to each child. I could see children's development throughout.

So that's basically what I wanted to share from my last few days at Boldon. I'll be in Denmark for the rest of the week so it'll be very interesting to see the differences and similarities.