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Curricular Transitions at the Early Level

Curricular Transitions at the Early Level. Michelle Simpson, Acting PT Toronto Primary School West Lothian michelle.simpson@wled.org.uk. Primary Leadership Conference September 2014. The Big Questions.

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Curricular Transitions at the Early Level

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  1. Curricular Transitions at the Early Level Michelle Simpson, Acting PT Toronto Primary School West Lothian michelle.simpson@wled.org.uk Primary Leadership Conference September 2014

  2. The Big Questions • We spend a lot of time, usually in the final term, preparing children for their move to ‘the big school’ but how can we ensure that this just becomes a natural transition? • What have they experienced for 2 years prior to coming to school that we can learn from and nurture? • How can we ensure that the children are making progress in their learning? • How can we record this progress effectively?

  3. What did we do? Pre-School Transition • Visits to Primary 1 and the school building (PE and Assemblies, Dinner hall and Playground) • P1 teacher and nursery teacher team teaching with mixed groups of P1 and Nursery pre school children • Joint collaborative projects which start in Nursery and finish in Primary 1 • ‘Jobs for the Day’ for the full last term Planning for Progression across the Early Level • Learner’s Journeys • Planning • Assessment Introduction of the idea of a ‘Onery’ • Using the Environment as a tool to support our children • P1 and P2 area shared • Similar themes and topics to encourage collaborative practice • Structured ‘Soft Start’ times like in Nursery

  4. The Big School The move to the ‘big school’ is an exciting and important time for children and their parents. Children look forward to it and mums and dads can see it as marking a significant moment when a special carefree time of childhood is left behind and children embark on a new phase of development. The first days and months in primary school present so many new experiences and challenges, and children often respond with an accelerated spurt of development, thriving on the challenge and adapting well. This kind of response depends on the resilience of the individual child as well as on factors such as the network of friends and supporters that children can draw on. Research shows that how well children adjust to the challenges of the new environment can have a significant and lasting impact on their learning in school. our aim has been to develop an approach that makes it more likely that children moving on are ready, willing and able to confidently pick up the threads of successful early learning.

  5. We thought about our P1 classrooms and shared areas We asked ourselves… How can our P1 classrooms reflect the Nursery environment? Do we have: A Writing Area? A Numeracy Area? A Role Play Area? A Physical Play Area? A Small World Play Area? A Craft Area? A Sand/Water?Dough Area? etc

  6. Co-operative Learning

  7. Shared Role Play Areas

  8. Structured ‘Soft Start’

  9. Joint Initiatives

  10. Learner’s Journeys In West Lothian we use Learner’s Journeys as a form of documenting children’s learning and tracking their progress. The Learner’s Journey is the Early Level Profile. This document was developed by West Lothian Council Early Years Quality Assurance Group in consultation with relevant stakeholders as a response to BtC5. It provides a format to recognise and record children’s progress in learning and wider achievements within the early level of CfE. West Lothian Early Years Quality Assurance Sub Group March 2011

  11. Early Level Overview

  12. Taking things a step further… May 2014 HWB 0-23a Today in Nursery, Ellie chose to play in the brick corner with her friend. As she investigated the brick area she discussed what she was going to build with her friend. The girls settled on building a house. Ellie selected some of the tools from the tool box and measured one of the bricks with a tape measure saying ‘it’s 80-50 and these tweezers (pliers) are very nippy so let’s get the hammer and sort this mess out’. During this experience, Ellie had very clear ideas of her own and was also able to accept the viewpoint of others around her. ‘India let’s get building an enormous wall...oh that’s good’. Ellie went on to tell one of the boys that she was ‘a lady builder’. Ellie played here for a good while co-operatively and had great fun with her peers!

  13. Relevant and Purposeful for the Children and Parents I chose to look through my Learner’s Journey folder today. I did something special in nursery today and asked for it to be added to my Learner’s Journey! I helped to add lovely work to my Learner’s Journey. I’m very clever! This is what I thought:

  14. As a Nursery Team we realised the importance of the children being able to see their progression at a glance so we created this visual representation of the outcomes for Numeracy and Maths. Currently we are developing more for the other areas

  15. Thinking about Planning ‘Professional dialogue is key to improving learning….Forward planning is a tool to assist teaching and learning. Teachers should plan to the level of detail which will work best for their pupils. This will vary…and there should not be a “one-size-fits-all” approach.’ Forward planning should be proportionate; there is no need to plan, assess, record and report at the level of each and every Experience and Outcome. It is almost always better to group together related Experiences and Outcomes and focus on the most significant aspects of teaching and learning. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Schools/CfEtacklingbureaucracygroup …and so that is what we did…

  16. Planning We grouped some of the natural Social Studies and Science Outcomes and from there created some possible contexts for learning over the Early Level.

  17. Early Level 3 Year Overview – Nursery Year 1 Windyknowe Nursery Early Level Topic Overview (2012-2014) (Nursery – Primary 1) Broad overview of MAIN Social Studies and Science CfE outcomes which link to each topic naturally are listed below. Each topic will have a main assessment focus. Literacy, Numeracy, H&WB and Technology will all permeate throughout so only focussed outcomes are listed below. More detail can be found in Long Term plans.

  18. Early Level 3 Year Overview – Nursery Year 2

  19. Early Level 3 Year Overview – Primary 1

  20. Assessment Records

  21. ‘Joyning’ the Learning ProjectFollowing on from the success of Nursery floorbooks

  22. Children leading their own learning Collaborative Nursery P1/P2 Project The curriculum should be designed on the basis of the following principles: Challenge & enjoyment Breadth Progression Depth Personalisation & choice Coherence Relevance https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/technologiesforlearning/2010/08/30/glowing-cookbook-glow-meet-with-a-dragon-early-years-fairyland-topic/

  23. Let’s Reflect

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