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A childminder’s perspective on The Curiosity Approach – by guest blogger Samantha Boyd
I started childminding over 7 years ago and went through a period of time of buying lots and lots of toys. I ended up with a play room full of toys, literally stuffed to the brim with resources, so much so that we didn’t use the play room to play in – it became a store room. The children were flitting from one activity to another, I was focused on adult led activities and losing my mojo. I could see all these amazing images of crafts that others were completing with (for?) their children and my job became competitive – I wanted to be the best, I wanted to be great at my job but I was focused on the end results and the children were not as happy as they could have been.
Then one day whilst wasting time on Facebook, I came across The Curiosity Approach. I was fascinated by the pictures and what they said resonated with me. Children do not need ‘stuff’. They need love, time, attention to be able to discover for themselves – this led to other avenues that I wanted to learn and understand about – Forest School (I completed my Level 3 Forest School qualification); schemas; deep learning; child led learning. I started to try out new things within the setting and found children’s interest and curiosity were sparked.
I began to change things about, decluttered, gradually got rid of a lot of toys that were not being played with and replaced them with more natural and open-ended resources. The children became calmer and more involved in their play, their imaginations began to shine through.
I decided to take the plunge and signed up to complete the Curiosity Accreditation – this was going to be an investment I would never regret. The changes have been gradual but the impact has been huge. The hardest change was adapting how I reacted to the children – I follow their interests, if they ask a question we find out the answers together using different ways, I stopped completing perfect cards and pictures with (for?) them for all the big holidays throughout the year – I stopped anything where the children did not benefit from it, and the focus was now on the journey and not the end result. I talked to the parents, we discussed how to move things forward, what they wanted from their child’s time here.
The result? I am still completing the accreditation 15 months on – taking my time over introducing changes and making sure they are embedded before moving onto the next thing. The setting has adapted, even changing its name, and sharing good practice with others. The families have travelled this journey with me, supporting me and their children in becoming curious. I have fallen in love with caring for and educating children again. I wake up and can’t wait to start in the morning and am inspired by The Curiosity Approach to continue to learn and improve, as my passion for this is absorbed by the families, and they too love learning and being curious.
Childminding Best Practice Newsletter
Sign up for the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter using the orange sign up box on my website and I will send you best practice ideas, childminding news, EYFS tips, outstanding ideas, stories from other childminders, arts and crafts project templates, new products, and links.
http://www.kidstogo.co.uk/childminders/childminding.html
About Kay Woods and Kids To Go
Kay Woods has been writing and selling childminding resources through her company Kids To Go since 2008. Her products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, the Learning Journey Plus for planning, observation and assessment and best practice resources promoting diversity, safety and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). She is the author of the Start Learning book set published by Tarquin and she writes the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter.
Lots of places offer help to childminders. I provide solutions.
http://www.kidstogo.co.uk/childminders/childminding.html
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Loose parts by guest blogger Samantha Boyd
Loose parts is a term that is becoming more and more popular within education but particularly in Early Years settings and if you are looking to be more environmentally friendly, is a great way to recycle and reuse. So, what are loose parts and what benefit do they have to children’s play and development?
Loose parts are not toys, in fact they are the exact opposite. A toy has one purpose, to be what it was built for. It cannot be anything else. A loose part however, with a little imagination can be absolutely anything.
Simon Nicholson created the theory of loose parts in 1971. He was an architect who believed that all children were creative, and that this creativity should be nurtured and encouraged, rather than suppressed by what adults believed children should be like. So, he tried giving open ended materials that could be used with imagination and become anything the child wanted it to become – they can become parts of construction, pattern forming, used in role play and social play, anything; and he was amazed by the imagination and creativity the children showed. Actively engaged children are resilient learners who can solve problems and think outside the box.
Some examples of loose parts:
Natural: shells, stones, wood chips, pine cones, leaves, feathers, seeds, flowers
Manufactured: buttons, boxes, fabric, ribbons, nuts and bolts, pegs, pipes, guttering, straws.
When using loose parts, children can follow their own agenda, their own learning. Set up invitations to play and see what the children can do. Trust the children to know. You may need to model how to use them. Many children are not sure what to do because they have not needed to use their imaginations in this way as toys and adults have told them what to do with things. So, allow the children to explore these objects.
Ask parents to support you by asking for donations. You will be surprised at how supportive parents are.
Here is an example of some art work achieved with loose parts.
Childminding Best Practice Newsletter
Sign up for the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter using the orange sign up box on my website and I will send you best practice ideas, childminding news, EYFS tips, outstanding ideas, stories from other childminders, arts and crafts project templates, new products, and links.
http://www.kidstogo.co.uk/childminders/childminding.html
About Kay Woods and Kids To Go
Kay Woods has been writing and selling childminding resources through her company Kids To Go since 2008. Her products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, the Learning Journey Plus for planning, observation and assessment and best practice resources promoting diversity, safety and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). She is the author of the Start Learning book set published by Tarquin and she writes the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter.
Lots of places offer help to childminders. I provide solutions.
http://www.kidstogo.co.uk/childminders/childminding.html
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What is new for childminders in the Sept 2019 Inspection Framework?
Lots of childminders have been asking for a guide to the September 2019 Inspection Framework. I have done my best in this article to wade through the new Ofsted jargon and pull out what I think are the most important points for childminders.
The Common Inspection Framework has been replaced with the Education Inspection Framework (EIF)
From Sept 2019, the Common Inspection Framework will be replaced by a new document called the Education Inspection Framework (EIF). This document needs to be read in conjunction with the updated version of the Early Years Inspection Handbook.
Be familiar with the new judgement areas
One key change to the structure of the Inspection Handbook document is the judgement areas. What was previously two separate areas ‘Teaching, learning and assessment’ and ‘outcomes’ is now combined into one new category: ‘quality of education’. What was previously ‘personal development, behaviour and welfare’ is now split into ‘behaviour and attitudes’ and ‘personal development’. Leadership and management remains the same.
Know what ‘curriculum’ you offer
The word ‘curriculum’ is central to the new Framework, so you need to be familiar with the term. In the Early Years your ‘curriculum’ in an ‘education’ sense is defined by the EYFS Statutory Framework – it is the seven areas of learning and development.
Have an idea of HOW you offer the EYFS curriculum in your setting and why you do what you do
You should be able to explain to an inspector broadly HOW you teach the children the seven Areas of Learning in your setting. Most childminders use a combination of adult-led learning (structured activities) and free play. You will also need to show that whatever type of curriculum you offer promotes the Characteristics of Effective Learning (COEL) which are important for turning children into good lifelong learners in school. You should be able to explain to an Ofsted inspector your choices in terms of what types of activities you do in your setting and why.
“Learn, Know and Do” is Ofsted’s new phrase. You must be able to explain to the Ofsted inspector what you hope that the children should be able to learn, know and do as a result of the EYFS curriculum you offer.
Be familiar with the idea of: “Intent – Implementation – Impact” and how this relates to the ‘quality of education’ you offer
Across all seven areas of learning and development, when you plan anything for the children, you should have a purpose, your ‘intent’ for what the children should learn from what you are planning. You then ‘implement’ the activity by doing it. After you have finished the activity you should be able to evaluate the ‘impact’ that the activity had on the children’s learning and development.
An easy example might be getting out a jigsaw puzzle. Your ‘intent’ in planning a jigsaw activity is to promote early maths skills. Doing the jigsaw is how you are ‘implementing’ the idea of ‘promoting maths skills’. After you have finished doing the jigsaw you should ask yourself what ‘impact’ the activity had on the children. In other words, you should be able to identify what the children learned from the jigsaw activity and how you would build on the jigsaw with further maths activities.
A more complex example might be a child you have established as being poor at sharing toys. Your ‘intent’ is to find ways to help the child to become better at sharing. To ‘implement’ this, you decide to plan a series of craft activities over the next six months that will specifically require the child to share craft items in a safe, supervised setting where you can intervene when the child forgets to share. After six months it would be important to ask yourself what ‘impact’ these craft activities have had on the child’s learning in this area and see if what you have been doing has worked, or if you need to come up with a new plan.
This is really nothing different to what you have been doing already with the observation – assessment – planning cycle. But you need to be familiar with the new terms: ‘Intent – Implementation – Impact’ because the Ofsted inspector will use them at your inspection.
Let me also stress that you do not need to write any of this down if you don’t want to. As long as you are able to explain this to an Ofsted inspector and demonstrate how you are involving parents in your plans and making it clear what they should be doing at home to help their child, you don’t need to write it down if you don’t want to.
In summary, for every activity you plan:
- Decide what the children you look after need to learn and develop (intent)
- Deliver this so that the children make progress in the seven areas of learning (implementation)
- Ask yourself how you will know if what you planned to deliver was successful? What can the children do now or know that they couldn’t before as a result of what you planned? (impact)
Think how you will tell your Ofsted inspector about how you teach children without showing them piles of ‘data’
Do not be surprised if your inspector no longer wants to look at your learning journeys or planning documents. They have been clear that they do not want to see a paperwork mountain. But if you are doing a ‘dinosaurs’ theme with the children when your inspector visits, for example, you should be able to explain out loud your ‘Intent’ of doing dinosaurs as a theme. In other words, what Areas of Learning and which COEL are you hoping to promote through studying this theme? She may also ask you how you are ‘Implementing’ your theme? You might be using dinosaur books, colouring pages, planning a day trip to the science centre, making a craft activity, and playing a dino-bones counting game. You should also be able to explain how you will measure what ‘impact’ the activities had on the children once you are finished.
I think that many childminders will find a quick written sketch of what you are planning and why will help you to stay focussed and be honest with yourself about what worked and what didn’t. Notes in the form of a written plan can help you to keep track of what you did so you can see what worked and what you’d want to change next time. But the key point Ofsted has stressed is that you should only do written planning if it is helpful to YOU. Your inspector will probably not look at it.
Plan your “Learning Walk” – your opportunity to show off what you do
When your inspector arrives in your setting, this is your opportunity to ‘wow’ them by taking them on a ‘learning walk’ (new Ofsted word) around your playroom and show them what you do. A learning walk relates specifically to education, so they don’t want a tour of your house, they want a tour of what you teach.
Suppose you have been studying dinosaurs (as in the example above) and you want your inspector to know this. One way would be to put up a display on your wall of your dinosaur theme activities – showing the children engaged in different activities that promote the different areas of learning. Another way would be to set up a “dig for dinosaur bones” invitation to play in your play tray and this would be a perfect activity for the children to be doing when your inspector arrives. She will see your display, your themed activity and later on you will sit down and read a Harry and the Dinosaurs book. Remember that you should be able to explain the learning goals of the activities you have planned within the theme, but you do not have to write this down if you prefer not to.
Be familiar with the term ‘cultural capital’
All children come to your setting with different skills to each other. You need to be aware of a child’s strengths and weaknesses and plan activities to help address the weaknesses. How you plan your curriculum to enhance the opportunities you give to children especially the most disadvantaged is very important. I have written more about what cultural capital means to childminders in this article.
Be prepared for your inspector to want to question you while you do an activity at your inspection
This is not new but often takes people by surprise who have prepared folders of paperwork for their inspection that isn’t then needed. Your inspector may want to observe your children with you and discuss their learning, progress and behaviour as part of the activities the children are engaged in. She will then ASK you what the child learned and furthermore how you intend to build on the activity so that the child makes progress. She is more likely to do this than to ask to see your learning journeys. If you have assistants, you should be prepared for her to question them at the same level to prove you are training your staff properly.
Making learning journeys remains an important way to practice formally observing children and planning next steps for them. In my opinion it is also a nice way to share that information with parents. So please don’t throw your learning journeys into the bin!
If you want to show that you are offering good ‘quality of education’ you need to check that the curriculum you plan:
- Is ambitious and sufficiently challenging
- Includes everybody you childmind for including children with SEND
- Increases the Cultural Capital of the children
- Prepares children for being lifelong learners in school
- Covers all seven areas of learning and development
- Includes assessment of where the children are relative to the development milestones in Development Matters
- Has a big focus on reading
‘Behaviour and attitudes’ and ‘personal development’ are things that help children’s life chances
The key points about these two judgement sections is that not much has really changed in terms of what Ofsted hopes to see you doing from what you did previously. They’ve split the sections up but haven’t really changed the content much.
You still need to be able to explain to the inspector how you help the children you look after to succeed in life and become good citizens of the future. Whereas the ‘quality of education’ focusses mainly on the learning and development areas of the EYFS, these two judgements focus more on the COEL plus welfare requirements of the EYFS like promoting healthy eating, physical exercise and self-care with a new emphasis on potty training. Make sure you are planning activities that actively promote the COEL and that you can recognise what these are when children display them.
The COEL really are more important than ever.
Be prepared for the inspector to actually want to speak to your parents at your inspection
Lastly I want to call your attention to a new section under how the inspector intends to ‘gather evidence’ at your inspection from talking to parents themselves. So do not be surprised if your inspector actually plans her visit around speaking to your parents!
Those are the key new points of new Education Inspection Framework and Early Years Inspection Handbook. You need to read these documents and make sure that you are following the new guidelines, especially if you are being inspected any time soon. From September onwards anything in this article is fair game!
Good luck!
Do you want to improve your understanding of the Characteristics of Effective Learning?
For help putting the Characteristics of Effective Learning into practice including tools, activity ideas, certificates you can give to children, poster and display ideas, CPD worksheets for your setting, examples for your SEF and a setting checklist for the COEL, check out my new Characteristics of Effective Learning Pack for childminders.
About Kay Woods and Kids To Go
Kay Woods has been writing and selling childminding resources through her company Kids To Go since 2008. Her products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, the Learning Journey Plus for planning, observation and assessment and best practice resources promoting diversity and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). She is the author of the Start Learning book set published by Tarquin and she writes the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter.
Lots of places offer help to childminders. I provide solutions.
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What does ‘Cultural Capital’ mean childminders should DO?
The first and most important thing to say about “Cultural Capital” – the new Ofsted buzz word that has appeared in the September 2019 Inspection Handbook – is DON’T PANIC.
- You do not need to attend a training course on cultural capital.
- Ofsted does not want to see a poster up in your setting labelled cultural capital.
- You do not have to start taking childminded children to the opera.
Most of you will find that the only change you need to make to what you are already doing is to learn the new buzz word so that if you hear it during your inspection you keep calm and carry on!
Cultural capital is defined in the new framework as ‘the essential knowledge that children need to be educated citizens’ and what is necessary to ‘prepare them for future success’.
Some children arrive at your setting with different experiences than others. The experiences they arrive with are their ‘cultural capital’. All children have SOME cultural capital when they arrive with you at your setting. But for some, this cultural capital is not enough to narrow the gap and get them ready for school. The curriculum you plan for that unique child can make all the difference to his or her future.
Your job as a childminder is to find ways to establish what a child’s ‘weaknesses’ are, and then plan your curriculum to help the child in the area that he is missing or behind.
A key example is talking. Some children arrive at your setting speaking really well with great vocabularies because they are exposed to lots of words and their parents read loads of books to them at home. Research has shown time and again that this gives them a massive advantage in school and in life. Other children come from much less fortunate backgrounds where they are not read to so much at home and know far fewer words. If you identify talking and vocabulary for example, as a child’s weakness, then your job as his childminder is to find ways to enhance it. In other words, you should make sure to plan a curriculum where you read a lot more and talk a lot more to children whose parents do not read to them at home.
The same rule applies right across the areas of learning and development and would also apply to the characteristics of effective learning.
Another example Ofsted gave during its webinar was a child who knows everything about dinosaurs, but nothing about plants. In this case, you could enhance his learning by teaching him about plants.
A characteristic of effective learning example might be a child who is never given any choices at home and who appears to passively take everything he is given. You can enhance his learning and prepare him for school by encouraging him to make choices while he is with you.
None of this is anything you are probably not already doing!
It just has a new name and is now in the Inspection Handbook to draw your attention to the sheer importance of doing the utterly obvious!
Here is what you need to do to ‘do’ cultural capital:
- Do starting points observations on all new children across all the learning and development areas and the COEL. This will show you the child’s strengths and areas of weaknesses.
- Ask yourself what you would do to improve the child’s area of weakness.
- Make a plan for each individual child. What can you develop? What can you encourage?
- Follow through on your plans.
- After you’ve been doing your plans for a while, check that your plans are having an effect. Has the child started to catch up? Have you broadened his cultural capital from when he started with you?
All children arrive in your setting with a different background and different skills.
Ofsted’s new buzz word is just another way of asking childminders to help to reduce disadvantage when you see it.
Remember that what you do for that child can potentially make all the difference.
Childminding Best Practice Newsletter
Sign up for the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter using the orange sign up box on my website and I will send you best practice ideas, childminding news, EYFS tips, outstanding ideas, stories from other childminders, arts and crafts project templates, new products, and links.
http://www.kidstogo.co.uk/childminders/childminding.html
About Kay Woods and Kids To Go
Kay Woods has been writing and selling childminding resources through her company Kids To Go since 2008. Her products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, the Learning Journey Plus for planning, observation and assessment and best practice resources promoting diversity, safety and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). She is the author of the Start Learning book set published by Tarquin and she writes the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter.
Lots of places offer help to childminders. I provide solutions.
http://www.kidstogo.co.uk/childminders/childminding.html
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The Great Christmas Card Debate: how much help should you give childminded children on their Christmas cards?
I’m NOT going to do handprints again for my childminding Christmas present, I said firmly to myself as I stared at the blank calendar template. Because everybody knows that handprints aren’t really the children’s work. Ofsted would scoff and tut. Other childminders will criticise me when I post the photo of two cute little handprints 
pressed in place by ME, not them. So this year I’m going to let the children do it.
So instead I asked the three year olds to draw a picture of their families to give to their parents as a “special Christmas present”. This is what one of them did:
He spent AGES doing it so his mummy would love it. I should have been delighted. Instead I looked at it and my heart sank. Why oh why did I leave out the BLACK pen? He always goes for the black. What on earth had I been thinking? In fact, why didn’t I just do red and green handprints with glitter and that lovely poem about growing up that makes all parents mist up every time they read it?
I hadn’t thought about the PURPOSE of my Christmas gift
The problem was that I’d read too many articles on social media criticizing hand prints and I hadn’t properly considered what I was trying to accomplish from my Christmas calendars. The question of how much help you should give children on their Christmas cards gets very heated debate on social media every single year. How do you feel?
Christmas card quiz: How much help should you give childminded children on their Christmas cards?
A: NONE. All art work sent home from my setting is child-initiated and open-ended including their Christmas cards. The parents want to see their child’s work, not mine.
B: SOME. At Christmas I like to send something home that’s a little more special than our normal artwork. I copy ideas from social media and magazines and help the children to reproduce it the best they can.
C: I DO IT FOR THEM: I like to send home a perfect footprint in clay or a handprint picture that his parents will bring out year after year at Christmas to remember when he was small. Parents don’t have time to do these things themselves. It’s also a special thank you gift for their business that’s from me as well as their child.
You probably have a pretty strong opinion along one of those lines of thought. But before you judge yourself and your own choices (or those of others) too strongly, remember that ALL three of those answers are perfectly valid reasons for Christmas projects. It just depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
So instead of saying things MUST be done a certain way, let’s turn the question around and ask a much more important question instead:
What are you trying to ACHIEVE from your Christmas art project?
I want to make a really special gift for the parents
If this is your goal, then it is worth spending a bit of time researching and preparing a nice idea. Hand prints and foot print projects on ceramic tiles will last forever and will be brought out by parents year after year. If you don’t have the budget for that, then there are lots of lovely handprint on paper designs that will also work well. If you laminate them, they will last in the attic and the parents will remember their child (and you) fondly each Christmas they take it out far into the future.
I want to promote my childminding business
If you want to promote your business, instead of a card, make a calendar and spend some time making it special so that the parents will put it up on their fridge for the whole year. I would recommend a picture that isn’t in Christmas colours if you are doing a calendar, because red and green glitter will look out of place in May and the parents might just take it down. Take some time to think about a really nice design that the parents will want to look at all year round, and help the children so the design is eye catching. This will remind the parents what a great childminder they chose for their child each time they look at the calendar on their fridge.
I want to impress Ofsted
The day you are being inspected is probably not the day to create your special gift for parents to treasure, or your calendar that will promote your childminding business. In general, I would recommend that you stay away from handprint art during your inspection because unless you’re really good at explaining the purpose of your handprint project (for example, you are doing a learning activity on counting to five, or are teaching children how to use scissors etc.) then, in general, hand print activities that require you to press the child’s hand into place and then to cut around the child’s hand, will not impress the Ofsted inspector. Time and again you hear of people being marked down at inspections for making the wrong sort of art project. This is not to say you should never do handprint art or display hand print art for the Ofsted inspector. Just make sure that you can explain the purpose behind your project.
I want to promote a specific area of learning and the Characteristic of Effective Learning: Active Learning
Lots of art projects you do with childminded children are ones where you set out purposely to make a specific project that you ultimately hope will at least vaguely resemble the model or idea you are copying. This snowman is an example from my EYFS Art Project CD where the point of the project is to teach the children about sizes and placement. They are asked to put the large circle at the bottom and the small circle on the top. This is quite a challenge for many EYFS children to understand the vocabulary and the concept of sizes. I also expected the children to sit still and concentrate long enough to finish the project they had started. WITH MY HELP, the two and half year old was able to produce this lovely snowman that she then felt very proud of. Without my guidance, she would probably have placed all three circles on top of each other and the buttons straight into her mouth! This would make an ideal project to send home to the parents if you want your present to highlight the focus on teaching and learning in your setting.
I want to show parents that everything we do here is child-led, promotes creativity and the Characteristic of Effective Learning: creating and thinking critically.
This is a perfectly valid reason to put out a tray of glitter and paint and glue and hope for the best. Don’t tut! Leaving children to do free play with these items could produce a masterpiece more beautiful than any idea you have copied for them off of Pinterest or Facebook and is a very important aspect of learning. Setting children loose to simply play with the art materials, exploring them for their own sake helps to build their creativity. It also helps them to explore their own ideas, to make links between ideas, to have their own ideas and to choose the best way to do something which promotes the COEL. However, it could also produce a piece of brown-smeared paper and a toddler wearing a bowl of glitter as a hat!
So looking back at my calendar family portrait again, if I’d gone into it with the right purpose in mind, it would have been perfect. It was a lovely project that focussed on Active Learning and exploring families. It just wasn’t what I felt was important at Christmas which is why I’d ended up feeling disappointed with it.
Don’t let this happen to you!
Whatever you decide for Christmas this year don’t let people on social media bully you into doing things their way. What you send home at Christmas is based on what you are trying to achieve from the project. Take a moment to consider the purpose behind your Christmas art projects so that YOU get the result you are aiming for.
Do you want to improve your understanding of the Characteristics of Effective Learning?
For help putting the Characteristics of Effective Learning into practice including tools, activity ideas, certificates you can give to children, poster and display ideas, CPD worksheets for your setting, examples for your SEF and a setting checklist for the COEL, check out my new Characteristics of Effective Learning Pack for childminders.
About Kay Woods and Kids To Go
Kay Woods has been writing and selling childminding resources through her company Kids To Go since 2008. Her products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, the Learning Journey Plus for planning, observation and assessment and best practice resources promoting diversity and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). She is the author of the Start Learning book set published by Tarquin and she writes the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter.
Lots of places offer help to childminders. I provide solutions.
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How to write about the Characteristics of Effective Learning (COEL) in childminding learning journeys
Ever find yourself staring at that row of letters and boxes on your learning journey form that asks you to circle which Characteristic of Effective Learning (CEOL) you are seeing in your learning journey observation and feeling baffled? If so, you are certainly not alone! The Learning and Development areas are relatively easy to understand. But the COEL are more complicated, and even the most experienced childminders can struggle to know which COEL they are seeing.
Sometimes it helps to purposely set up some activities where you will almost certainly observe the COEL. It is a good to “practice” observing in a controlled way. That way you will become more familiar with the COEL when you observe them more randomly. This article will give you some simple activities you can plan to promote the COEL in a way that is easy to observe and write about.
It’s not always easy to recognise WHICH COEL you are seeing for a particular activity
Many childminders will admit that it is often very, very difficult to select which COEL box to circle on their learning journeys. This is for several reasons but primarily it is because the three COEL are interlinked with each other so it is not always straightforward to pin point which COEL you are observing. In fact, with many activities you will see children doing and might write about in your learning journeys, you could easily circle all three COEL boxes. Or none. Please don’t worry about this too much. It is more important for you to know that you are observing a child displaying the COEL than to necessarily know WHICH COEL you are observing in a particular situation.
Take a trip to the playground or soft play gym to observe ‘Active Learning’
Active Learning (AL) is essentially about describing a child’s motivation to learn. At a playground you should see many examples of children ‘keeping on trying’ to accomplish something and ‘achieving what they set out to do’. In your learning journey write about how the child felt when he succeeded or ‘felt proud’ about something.
Plan structured art activities to promote ‘Active Learning’ and unstructured play with art materials to promote ‘Creating and Thinking Critically’
There are two Characteristics of Effective Learning (COEL) that you can explore while you do art projects with small children. By changing the focus of the art project, you can change which COEL you hope to promote and observe.
Art projects with small children tend to come in two different types. The first type of art project is one where you set out purposely to make a specific project that you ultimately hope will at least vaguely resemble the model or idea you are copying. The second type of art projects is where you set the children loose to simply play with the art materials, exploring them for their own sake. Both of these types have their place in childminding settings and in the activities you plan for the children.
When you set out to purposely make a specific project (like colouring a picture), then this is a great opportunity to make observations on how well the children can concentrate on a particular task. It is also an opportunity to witness them keeping on trying when difficulties persist and feeling proud of their accomplishment when it is finished. These are all ‘Active Learning (AL)’ observations.
On the other hand, when you set the children loose with paint brushes and stand back and just let them paint, or give them random collage materials or scraps to build with, then you are observing them ‘Creating and Thinking Critically (CT)’. Time spent in this way gives children the opportunity to explore their own ideas, to make links between ideas, to have their own ideas and to choose the best way to do something.
Mathematical and construction toys promote ‘Creating and Thinking Critically’
Many mathematical and construction toys and activities help to promote the COEL: Creating and Thinking Critically in children. They are designed to help children to test their ideas about space, shapes and sizes, to find new ways to do things, to make links and to change strategy as needed. They offer you plenty of opportunities to ask children to review what approach worked and to try something differently next time.
Cooking projects can promote all three Characteristics of Effective Learning
When children try something for the first time, are willing to ‘have a go’ and show a ‘can-do’ attitude about an experience, then they are demonstrating Playing and Exploring (PE). Cooking requires concentration and motivation to finish a difficult task. When you observe children keeping on trying, persisting with an activity that is hard for them, and taking pride in their end result, then they are demonstrating Active Learning (AL). Cooking projects are also a great opportunity to observe children Creating and Thinking Critically (CTC). When they are cooking they will have their own ideas about the best way to do things, and find ways to solve problems (like how to tip all the flour into the bowl without pouring it on the floor).
Forest Childcare outings promote ‘Creating and Thinking Critically’
Forest Childcare outings to the great outdoors are a great way to observe all aspects of children’s Learning and Development including Personal, Emotional and Social skills, Physical Development and Communication. Outdoor outings are also a great way to observe children displaying the COEL.
Being outdoors in ‘wild’ places gives children the opportunity to practice their critical thinking and problem solving skills. How will they get across there without getting wet? How will they carry that home? What will happen if I throw that? How will I get down from here without hurting myself?
You can help children to practice their thinking and problem solving skills while you are out in the woods with them by asking them questions like:
- How are you going to do that?
- Is there another way you could try that?
- What else is possible?
Outdoor tasks are a great opportunity to ask children to think of different approaches to a problem if the first approach doesn’t seem to be working. I felt so proud the day my two four year olds figured out that on their own neither was strong enough to drag the log, but that if they worked together they could move it!
Forest Childcare is about making a commitment to taking children on weekly outdoor outings to wild spaces. By taking regular trips, children build familiarity with the outdoors and can learn to make links and predications about the things they will encounter there and experience.
Being outdoors will mean that children will ask lots of questions about the things they see and find. You won’t always know the answers to the questions they ask, so it is also a great opportunity to let children watch how you think, and then to show them how to find the answers to their questions.
Remember that many childminding activities do not promote any of the COEL
Many of the activities you do as a childminder will promote NONE of the COEL. Many observations you may make and write about in your learning journeys will focus entirely on the learning and development areas and not promote a COEL at all. When that happens, you shouldn’t circle any of the COEL boxes at all.
Do you want to improve your understanding of the Characteristics of Effective Learning?
For help putting the Characteristics of Effective Learning into practice including tools, activity ideas, certificates you can give to children, poster and display ideas, CPD worksheets for your setting, examples for your SEF and a setting checklist for the COEL, check out my new Characteristics of Effective Learning Pack for childminders.
Do you want to improve how you write your learning journeys?
I am now offering an 8 module distance learning course for childminders to improve how you write your learning journey observations. The course focusses on both the Learning and Development observations AND the Characteristics of Effective Learning. The course also covers the following topics:
- Writing next steps and linking them to planning
- Writing observations in different Learning and Development areas including Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional development, Communication and Language, Mathematics and Creative development
- Writing and observing the Characteristics of Effective Learning
- Improving the ‘story’ and ‘message’ of the observation
- Sharing learning journeys with parents
- Linking learning journeys to whole child assessments
- Using learning journeys to promote a childminding business
- Writing about ‘bad’ and ‘negative’ behaviour in a positive way
About Kay Woods and Kids To Go
Kay Woods has been writing and selling childminding resources through her company Kids To Go since 2008. Her products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, the Learning Journey Plus for planning, observation and assessment and best practice resources promoting diversity and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). She is the author of the Start Learning book set published by Tarquin and she writes the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter.
Lots of places offer help to childminders. I provide solutions.
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10 Ways for Childminders to put the Characteristics of Effective Learning (COEL) into Practice
Understanding the COEL is vital for every childminder. Not only will you be expected to know this information during your Ofsted inspection, it is also a huge benefit to the children you look after if you can help them to acquire the skills in the Early Years that they will need to help them to succeed in school and become learners for life. Here are ten ways childminders can put the COEL into Practice.
- Help children to learn from mistakes, bounce back and try again
Many children (and adults) are afraid of failure. Many parents are so afraid of failure that they never give their child a chance to fail at a task. At the first sign of difficulty they jump in to rescue their child, to finish the art project for them, to lift them up onto the climbing frame. They are afraid to let their child ‘fail’ or ‘fall’ and in doing so, continually give their child the message that they can’t really be expected to do things by themselves and that if they fail or fall, that would be a terrible thing instead of a normal and positive part of growing up. Childminders can help children learn to embrace failure as something normal when learning new things. To learn from failure instead of being afraid of it and to find new ways to approach a task until they succeed.
2. Encourage children to try new things with a ‘can do’ attitude
Childminders can encourage children to have a can do attitude about trying new things by praising the ‘process’ rather than the end result. It is more important to encourage the child who is attempting to use scissors for the first time and praise the child who is trying to go across the monkey bars, than to display perfect artwork or cheer the child only once she makes it across the monkey bars.
3. Make children believe that the harder they work, the better they’ll get at the things they do
Hard work should always be rewarded with praise and attention. There are few things that will help children to do well in school as much as a belief in themselves that if they work at something they will ultimately achieve it. I like to put up displays that show the children improving at tasks over time to remind them that success takes time.
4. Reward children who never give up
Give children time to persist at a task that they find challenging so that they can feel the satisfaction of meeting the goals they set for themselves. Make the point of telling parents at collection time what the child was trying, not just what the child succeeded at especially if the task was a challenge for the child.
5. Teach children to love learning
Make it clear to children that ultimately you don’t know all that much. That it’s a big, complicated world and no one person is expected to know the answers to everything. Show them how you look up answers to things you don’t know in books and online. As a childminder, a great way to promote learning is to explore themes with the children, especially themes you may not know much about yourself.
6. Help children to concentrate
Encouraging children to sit still and concentrate on tasks (sometimes ones that are not of their own choosing) is wonderful preparation for school. When a child arrives at school he can either count up to ten blocks, or he can’t. He can either write his name, or he can’t. Those tasks can be taught to him by his teachers. However, he will find any task he has to learn easier if he can make himself concentrate. Encourage and praise children who are concentrating on tasks they have chosen for themselves. And expect all children to join in with structured activities you have set up for them so they can practice and improve their concentration skills.
7. Encourage children to keep on trying when challenges occur
Successful people don’t give up when challenges occur. They try a different approach to solve the problem. They motivate themselves to get through little setbacks and keep going. You can help children to develop this trait by praising them for keeping on trying at activities, whether or not they succeed at what they were attempting.
8. Teach children to think their way through problems
One of the best ways to teach children to think is to model how you think through things you don’t know and show them how you find the answers. Don’t be afraid to show children that you don’t always get things right first time and sometimes need to take a different approach to learn the answer.
9. Support children to ask questions and think about our world
Children asks lots and lots of questions. Always respect these questions and never give the idea that a child’s question is silly. If they feel they can take a risk by asking questions and that their questions aren’t judged in any way, they will grow to believe that asking questions is the key to unlocking their education.
10. Help children to make links and notice patterns in their experience
All children need to be able to think and solve problems if they are going to do well in school and life. Thinking up ideas, making links between things, finding out how things are ordered and grouped together, and finding ways to solve problems is what an awful lot of education is about. In the Early Years you can help to teach children HOW to think. A great way to do this is by playing with construction toys, doing cooking projects and by taking regular trips to the same outdoor places.
Do you want to improve your understanding of the Characteristics of Effective Learning?
For help putting the Characteristics of Effective Learning into practice including tools, activity ideas, certificates you can give to children, poster and display ideas, CPD worksheets for your setting, examples for your SEF and a setting checklist for the COEL, check out my new Characteristics of Effective Learning Pack for childminders.
About Kay Woods and Kids To Go
Kay Woods has been writing and selling childminding resources through her company Kids To Go since 2008. Her products include the Ultimate Childminding Checklist, the Learning Journey Plus for planning, observation and assessment and best practice resources promoting diversity and childminding in the great outdoors (Forest Childcare). She is the author of the Start Learning book set published by Tarquin and she writes the free quarterly Childminding Best Practice Newsletter.
Lots of places offer help to childminders. I provide solutions.
http://www.kidstogo.co.uk/childminders/childminding.html
