Research

Im finding my lines of inguiry quite a challenge. Its difficult to distinguish what is important, my pacific interest and what will have enough imformation for me to really get stuck into.

It struck me the other day how much we expect out of our children at such a young age. Children are expected to start full time school at the age of 5 in britain. I am aware that in many other countries the age is much higher. There are many positives and negatives to this. I aim to enquire more into this and ask the colleges in my school, professionals etc.

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/index.cfm?9B1C0068-C29E-AD4D-0AEC-8B4F43F54A28

This also links into summer time babies. This subject has made me question why the academic year is set out in years the way it is. There is a huge difference in a children when starting state school nursery in september when their birthdays are either earlier in the year or later. Some of the children turn 4 in the first quarter of the term, while others are later in the year, as late as august. This means some children have only just turned 3 when starting nursery (or 4 when in reception) in the september. I have noticed that summer time boys have quite a dramatic gap, epecially when compared to girls. It is established by lots of researchers that boys are slower to mature than girls. This has an effect on their overall learning. But by them starting earlier, is it putting them at an advantage when continuing through their school years because the intervention is started an an early age?

this is an american article that i found really interesting

http://www.pbs.org/parents/raisingboys/school02.html

Another subject i have always been passionate about is "the importance of play in early years and beyond". This has always been a special interest to me as i like to be very creative. Luckily the govenment introduced the 'Early years foundation stage' in 2008. This ment that every educational setting had a framework to ensure that children where being educationed/brought up in the best enviroment possible and would aliterate the importance of this part of a childs life. In some settings this is used in a exceptional, outstanding way. Children are in an environment that will extend there learning and there well being.

http://www.education.gov.uk/tickellreview

This links in with another subject i am passionate about. "working in parnership with parents".
As someone who works in a educational setting you can identify the children who's parents have made an impact on there childrens up-bringing/well being/learning. Dont get me wrong all parents effect the way their child is growing up, some good some bad. But i mean on levels that tick the EYFS. You can tell when a parent has taken the time to explore with their child. The child is more well rounded, settled and have a confidence to talk about their experiances etc.
This is not me saying that if you dont do this your a bad parent, its not. Its about us who are professionals in specific areas guiding parents to be the best parents and have the involvment in their childs life in the best way possible.

"if parents are not taught the right way, how do we expect them to give their children the best start in life"

I would very much appricate peoples different oppionions on these subjects.

Special Interest Group (SIG)

Hi guys.

Looking to set up an special interest group to help to communicate with people from this course.

Let me first remind you a little about myself. I am currently working full time in schools over the borough. I have 2 years experinace in working in early years. I have worked running playschemes also for the past 5 years in a senior possition. I went to chickenshed theatre to do my diploma in performing arts then on to my foundation degree in inclusive performance. I have also previously worked in retail for 5years.

I have made a new email address, please feel free to email me to spark a convo. earnoldbapp@hotmail.co.uk

i have also created a seperate facebook account to help generate a community of proffesional practise feel free to add me up http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=wizard#!/emily.arnold.73157

I look forward to hearing from you all and hopefully to get some interesting convo started.

Developed Questions

After analizing my original questionaire, i have re-looked at them and changed them.
Im hoping that this will make people look at them differently and create better responces...

1. How do you think we as parents, professionals, adults can help to prevent exposing young children to things they shouldnt be exposed to?

2. What do you think are the key aspects in making a school inclusive?

3. What are your childhood memories?

4. What are the benifits of doing home visits?

5. A lot of children with additional needs are being educated in mainstream schools nowadays. what are your views on this?

6. Analise the impact of mixing children that are classified as 'mainstream' with children who have additional needs?

7. Why is it important to build good reltionships with parents?

8. What are your feelings on using technology as a teaching resource in classrooms?

Reflection on Questions 4a

In reflection to my questions, im very glad that i made the decision to make a questionaire and give it to other professionals that work in schools.
These questions are ones that i raise on a day to day basis with myself and i found it extreamly useful to get back other peoples opinions and try to relate them to my own.
First of all i had to create the questions, now looking back on the responces i got some where short and some were long with lots of depth. I put this down to peoples reactions to the questionaire. either they took the time to fill it out and look carefully at what i was asking or they simply couldnt be bothered to fill it out. Anyhow my view is that any responce, is a good one.
I had the opitunity to give the questions to some students studying childcare and then a team of T.As on a training course. This ment i got a variety of answers from people just starting in their career path to others that have been pursuing this career and have gained great knowledge and experiance.
Much of the good responces i got were along the same lines of how other people thought. This made me realize that maybe my questions were to 'comfortable', they didnt push the barriors of peoples opinions.

The biggest fault i felt i made to my questionaire was not having an introduction to it. i feel that this could have made people look at it and think 'ah another questionaire that i have no desire to fill out and why should i waste my time doing it for someone else'. I should have given reason as to why i would like peoples opinions, how it will help me in my personal profession and possibly help people to express their views that they may not feel they are able to in their environment. Also i may not have got responces that were completly honest. I have definatly learnt in my experiances that sometimes people will just say what they think people want to hear. Their are lots of politics involved in working in schools. I feel that peoples fear of this lead them to masking their opinions.
Even though i got good responces i do feel that i could have made my questions more to the point. First of all i should have thought 'what do i want to get from this'.. then when writting my questions i should have gone back over them to make sure they were clear, understandable for all people, and not closed so that people had to elaborate on them. I also could have kept my questions to one specific area of interest.

By reflecting on this its made me think more carefully about questions i will continue to post and ask other professionals. I hope this will create people to continue to ask other questions.

questions

These are questions that i requlary ask myself on a day to day basis or when i am talking to friends that also work in schools. I will be giving these questionairs to a variety of people, these will include; parents, teachers, management staff, and a team of teaching assistants. I feel that this will give me a wide range of different views and peoples opinions. Please feel free to answer these. I am hoping that these questions will lead to other questions that could potentually lead me to inquiring and looking further into depth about. Thank you.

1.       Are we as I society exposing young children to too much? i.e facebook, phones, magazines, tv programes, adult conversation etc 

2.   Do you think that schools are as inclusive as they could be? What makes them inclusive?

3.       How important do you think play is to young children?

4.       Do you think home visits are important part for children starting nursery/reception?

 

5.       A lot of children with additional needs are being educated in ‘mainstream’ schools nowadays. What are your views on this?

6.       What are the benefits in mixing children that are classified as ‘mainstream’ with childen who have additional needs?

 

7.       How important is it to construct good relationships with parents?

 

8.       Do we rely on using too much technology to teach children nowadays?

training days

At the begining of term i under took a refresher on approach training and child protection.

These courses where very informative. For those of you that do not no what approach training is, it is techniques to help to support children who is distressed. these techiques are mostly used when i child is a danger to themselves, others or property.
Approach is mainly used in special needs schools as some children with additional needs are unable to control out bursts, common to behavioural problems, miss understood which results in tantrums, hitting out etc.
In mainstream schools is it likely that only 1 or 2 people are trained in approach training.
personally i feel that it is important that more people in schools are trained in this technique as there are more and more children with additional needs going into mainstream schools. I feel i would also prevent professionals being questioned about how they have dealt with matters. However this isnt just something that should be used unless it is essential and the last resort.

Child protection is all about looking out for possible signs that a child is subject to abuse. Anyone working with children, young adults should all have under taken a child protection course.

New term = New experiances, New way of thinking

So here we are again.... back to blogging after a long break. Heres a little bit of what i have been up to...

Getting the set assignment in was a huge relief and a massive weight off my shoulders.... it caused me alot of stress but i have nothing to blame but myself. Thankfully i passed and have had a long time over the summer to think about what i need to do in order to be more organised and better prepared for the up coming modual. i have set in study times and am starting to think about what my possible line of inquiry will be. The prospect of this really excites me as im looking forward to learning more about education and the age range of children i work with.

During doing the assignment i actually had to write reports about the children that i work with, it was hard work but very rewarding as it gave me a moment to look back on the work i have done through out the year and the progress that these children had made. i felt extreamly proud of myself but even more so towards the children i supported. it proved to me that you only get back what you put in. This is something that i hope to keep in mind during this modual.
It also gave me a moment to realise that becoming a primary school teacher is something that i 100% want to pursue. There is nothing like first hand experiance and the experiance that i now have under my wing has given me the confidence to pursue this dream. I hope to do my GTP next september 2013, it is currently in the process of changing to SCHOOL DIRECT. The new course is now alot harder to get on to which means i have to under take tests and numerus interviews. Unfortuantly this has knocked my confidence a bit as i am worried that i will be taking on to much what with having to complete this course with a 2.1 or 1st, study for the tests i have to take, complete applications, under go interviews, the list is endless but fingers crossed, i will keep you updated on any information i receieve regarding this incase you too are pursuing this.

To be honest i didnt get much of a break over the 6 weeks, i actually worked running a playscheme for 3 of the weeks. This role is senior role so my responsibilties were very demanding, however again rewarding. The thing about working with children is your constantly learning as children of different generations, ages, gender, culture, families, schools etc are constantly changing. I am so grateful for these experiances as my knowledge continues to grow and develop. This ultimatly means my professional development is continuing to grow, expand and hopefully making me a better proffesional. Not only does my knowledge grow about children but also in working with other people/professionals. Its giving me the confience to speak, instruct and inform  adults, professionals, parents. This is highly important to me and my profession, i hope it continues to grow as my professional carer develops.

I now aim to crack on with the tasks for this next modual.

 Any thoughts or questions just ask :-)