South Bedfont Playgroup
Key Persons and your Child
Key Persons and Your Child
Why do we observe your child?
We know that every young child that attends our playgroup has a unique set of abilities. In order for our staff to be able to plan for your child’s play, learning development and future progress we will conduct observations which are recorded in your child's online journal 'eyLog'. EyLog helps our skilled practitioners to capture your child's experiences as well as monitor their learning progress. These observations will take place throughout the time your child is with us.
Parent involvement in the assessment process is essential. EyLog allows us to set up a private account with you so we can email you photos and observations as they happen. It also enables you to carry out observations at home to email back to us. Children do act differently at home and at playgroup so your feedback on our observations enable us to get a full picture of your child and further help their progression. It also enables parents to plan play and learning at home that works alongside the playgroup should they wish.
Our aim is to support parents as their children’s first and most important educators by involving them in their children’s education and in the full life of the setting.
All observations are kept confidential and can only be looked at by the child’s parents.
By completing child observations to enable us to meet the needs and learning development of each child, we work to the Early Years Foundation Stage and also meet the requirements set out by the National Care Standards.
What is an observation?
Most observations will be carried out by your child's key worker and most will use what we call a narrative form where the key worker notes down what they are seeing, which gives them a picture of your child’s activity during this time. We sometimes use checklists when assessing physical development as there are lots of different activities to cover and if for example we are assessing a child’s behaviour we may use an observation technique called event sample, when every time the child shows the type of behaviour being monitored it is recorded on a prepared sheet. We also record with photographs or videos of the children to help document their progress. All staff have completed Early Years training in carrying out observations.
Most of our observations and assessments methods that we use to record your child’s development will be ongoing known as Formative assessment. This means that their key worker is aware of your child’s strengths and areas of need and will plan for them whilst they are still continuing to observe the child. Occasionally they may be asked to write a report on what they have found out about your child in what is known as a Summative assessment. It may be requested by a parent so you can read about your child’s progress or for a professional educational partner (with the parent’s consent)