Developing Skill Differentiation

Have had the great pleasure of working with lots of lovely settings over the last couple of weeks, with two in particular focussing on the development of skills in Continuous Provision and objective led planning.

Last week I made a visit to Dee Point Primary School to work with the very lovely Lindsay and her team. Lindsay is the new Early Years Coordinator a this 2 form entry primary and manages the Early Years team which includes Nursery and Reception.

Lindsay and I have worked together before she went to Dee Point and talked lots about objective led planning and how it works so, when she started her new role she was keen to put her ideas into practice.

My visit was to see how it was going, evaluate impact and help Lindsay iron out any creases. I think I managed all of that as well as giving the entire team a headache - which is an achievement in itself!

I really don't get the faces on a paper plate frenzy that seems to occur every September, especially when there are 30 of them all stuck on the wall, all looking exactly the same. What is the purpose behind them? What skills are they teaching children? Where is the individuality?

Anyway, I have to say that I LOVED Lindsay's point of entry display. Not just because of the individuality that was evident, but because of the fact that it had clear links to assessment, physical development and attainment. Not to mention the fact that it looked FAB!

All of the display boards  were  full of it. It is quite hard to capture the impact in one photo. 

The assessment focus that had generated the images for the display was around children's grip and fine and gross motor movement.

Not only could you see the stages of development in the size and content of the drawings themselves, but the comments and photographs that had been added gave the pictures context and showed that the staff were clear about next steps development.

You can see from the photographs that both the indoor nd the outdoor environment was used to get high level engagement and also a variety of sizes of paper and types of drawing marterials were matched to children's gross or fine motor dexterity.

The fact that the photographs had been printed in black and white was a nice touch and helped give the display real impact.

I was then able to go and see if I could match the next steps identified by the display in the provision. I am very pleased to report that I could! 

Liked this idea for giving a common or garden pencil some real grip

It is pipe insulation and insulating tape (both available from any good DIY store).

These pens have a great moulded rubber grip on the front. Apparently they are in the sale at Staples, so if you want some, you will have to hurry before they sell out!

The development of gross motor and fine motor skills was not restricted to the mark making spaces it was also clearly evident in the Malleable Materials Area, Paint Area, Workshop, Construction and Outdoor. It made tracking evidence of assessment and attainment very easy.

Yesterday I was back in Coventry. I spent the morning training with my Early Fresh Eyes focus group.

(Fresh Eyes was started up by like minded Head teachers in Coventry who wanted to have more control over CPD for their schools. Any school can buy into the service and they pool the funds together, identify common areas of need and then provide bespoke training  that is very need specific.

I have been asked to deliver training for the Early Fresh Eyes group. The Fresh Eyes initiative has always been very popular with around 70 Early Years Coordinators attending each training session. This number is now growing fast as Heads from other Local Authorities are buying into the Fresh Eyes training packages that are relevant for their staff).

Then in the afternoon I went to St Thomas More RC Primary to re-visit Claire and her team. You may remember Claire as the lovely teacher 'in a lemon cardie' from this previous blog post.

Well, today she was in a pink cardie, with wellies to match! Claire is the Early Years coordinator of a 2 form entry Reception and a Nursery. Much like Dee Point, the children and the staff in Reception share the space. This means that the CP has to support the learning of all children, be enhanced by skill development and dressed for interest and engagement.

Claire and her team have clearly worked their socks off over the summer because they had transformed their space. Not only was the environment clearly linked to their point of entry assessment but key areas had a weekly skill enhancement and differentiation.

This is like a huge working wall which will continually change in response to children's interests and experiences. The photographs show children engaged in activities, the speech bubbles record how the children were able to articulate their learning or interest, the cloud is a practitioner judgement a post it will be added to the bottom of the cloud to show next steps.

These will be transferred directly into children's learning journeys when they come down.

Claire has planned for skill differentiation in areas, but her Head (Mary) asked that this differentiation be displayed so that adults working in the setting were able to keep track and also when Mary came in to do any monitoring (or just to play), she could easily track attainment and see how the system was working.

Sorry about the rubbish photos Claire. I was trying to make miniature books with a group of girls and take photos at the same time!

These are positioned way above head height so that they don't get into the children's immediate line of vision.

They are there to encourage children to develop skills. They are not the same as the Learning Objectives that will be taught during direct teaching time.

The resources that are in the CP should then reflect the skills listed

The resources should be 'dressed' for interest to encourage the 'target' children to use them.

Elsewhere in Claire's CP there were these bobbins that had been dressed for interest to develop the skill of pincer grip and wrist pivot. Wonder what the children who needed to develop this skill got excited about?!

These sheets were used to develop higher level cutting skills - again, dressed for interest.

Like at Dee Point the children at St Thomas More were engaged, active and purposeful in their learning. Activities were fun and had been planned around the things that motivate children. 

The environment was matched to assessment. The Continuous Provision was also matched to assessment and further strengthened with skill development.

The adults delivered a mixture of direct teaching and objective led teaching through continuous provision which was producing some brilliant results even this early in the school year.

In my next post I will unpick those teaching strategies further and share some ideas for what objective led planning might look like on paper and in practice.

I think both Claire and Lindsay would tell you they have lots they still want to work on and they by no means feel that they have got it all sorted, but from what I saw they are well on the way. It was an impressive start to the year - and not a paper plate in sight!

Alistair

Comments

[Jo]

I love your blog. I have used several of your ideas in our early years team meeting today. I think I baffled some. But who knows what next half term will bring!

[Jacqui]

Hi Alistair,I am a big fan of your blog and have persuaded my head to book you for some training this Summer. I love this display but was always told that writing and smaller pictures should be easily seen by the children. Our children are 3 and 4 and our display boards are not at their eye level. What are your thoughts please? Also have been told by our SIP that our displays need to be more child led. I had already planned to do this after reading your blog posts on the issue but find it difficult in nursery when so much of our teaching time is taken up at this stage of the term with toileting/nappy changing, teaching children to wipe their noses and pu tissues in the bin, teaching how to take coats on and off, how to put aprons on and where to hang them etc etc etc. Any good quality time with the children is generally interrupted. Sorry for moan but feeling a bit dispondent.

[abc does]

Hi Jo

All the best initiatives start with a bit of 'baffle'! Good luck.

Alistair

[abc does]

Hi Jacqui - I am indeed coming to see you next summer, by which time your children should be hanging up their aprons and wiping their own noses (you can live in hope).
Display can be a multipurpose thing. Some display will have a direct impact on children's learning like a personalised alphabet or number line. Other display is to celebrate their work and raise their self esteem. Display should also reflect the diversity and quality of your environment and practitioners skill at making quality judgements.

When Lindsay or Claire have put the speech bubbles on the wall they will probably have made them with the children, told the children what they say and therefore made the link between talk and writing. But they have not been put there for the children to read.

You are at the hardest end of the year and you know that it gets easier as the weeks pass. Don't be too despondent. It will be different again by Christmas!

Alistair

[Gill Aspinall]

Fab ideas as always!
Love the black and white photos and will definitely be printing my observations that way tomorrow...
Keep up the inspiring blogs,
Thanks
Gill A
Bolton

[Hettie]

Yet more inspiration! It's sometimes hard not to get despondent reading posts like these - I feel so far behind this point. I'm really struggling with skill progression - I feel I just don't know enough. What exactly are 'higher level cutting skills'?! And, how do I find out what I don't know; I worry that I'm missing so much. However, on a positive note I have started this year differently. We have a 'me and my family' display which begins with children's self-portraits (not on paper plates!) and then has family photos with speech bubbles showing what the children have said about them. We've starting making our own personalised alphabet line with silly photos, the letter and a sentence using it that explains what's in the photo e.g. Police Officer Polly in front of a purple wall with a penguin holding a plate! I've set up a self-serve paint area which is going brilliantly and am trying so hard with following their interests - yesterday we had a Power Rangers and princesses addition activity which had children queuing up to participate in and even superseded the lure of the great outdoors for one boy! So, not all bad just a long way still to go!

[Peter Lindley]

It is truly inspirational blog...but I too feel like Hettie! I feel like I am peddling very very fast at the moment, but only travelling at 1mile an hour! I feel that I am still just getting them to use the resources that we have in the class in the correct way. I have set up a 'Painting Station' with old soap dispensers with paint and powder paint in sugar pourers and they do love it. The deal is that they have to wash up/tidy up etc ....But turn my back for a second and it looks like a Rothko painting has just happened in Class1. But all over the sink and cupboards. I suppose it could be considered modern art by some. Anyway rant over! But it was just a little message to say 'Thank you' for doing all this- Alistair. And I want you to come to our school too.

[abc does]

Hi Pete and Hettie

I know it this sounds a bit like the X factor... but 'it is a journey'! No one is doing it all, all of the time. The fact that you are constantly looking at ways to improve your practice shows how committed you are to making a difference for your children. If there is anything I can help you with then just give me a shout.

Alistair