Time to upgrade the planning cycle

When I was working in early years settings, it felt impossible to complete observations, assessments and planning without using a small forest’s-worth of paper. This is not what is meant by Forest Schooling!

Between handwritten observations, termly assessments, the weekly A3-sixed planner and all the other forms that need filling out, I spent a good chunk of my time in the early years just writing – and cutting, sticking, printing and filing. Don’t get me wrong, observation, assessment and planning are hugely important but when those activities take too much time away from actually delivering the learning that they are supposed to support, we’ve gone wrong somewhere.

Luckily for educators in settings now, all that time I spent keeping our local stationery supplier in business can be spent where it always should have been – on the children. Because the children is what it all comes back to. The children should be at the centre of the planning cycle – but sometimes we can barely see them over the mounds of paperwork.

Thanks to the changes to the EYFS in 2021, and Ofsted’s reassurances that they were visiting to see the children, not folders, early educators today are able to do a lot less writing about educating and a lot more actual educating.

Famly is here to help too. It’s time to park your old planning cycle in the bike sheds – here are some ideas to help you put down the paperwork and reclaim your time:

• Your setting’s curriculum – Being able to add your curriculum to Famly means that educators always have it at their fingertips, right there in the app. You can add links to your areas of learning in observations, so you can keep an eye on what’s really sparking children’s interests or use it as a reference material for in-the-moment planning.

• Bespoke planning – Famly’s weekly activity planner means that everyone knows what’s going on, including parents. Add activities from Famly’s collaborative customer Activity Library or create your own sections to reflect what’s happening at your setting.

• A unique learning journey – Open observations, with no statements to tick off, allow educators to describe children’s unique learning and achievement, without having to find the corresponding line in Development Matters. A much more rounded, and less box-shaped, view of the child. Optional ‘what next’ sections allow educators to note how they’ll scaffold and support further learning.

• Customisable assessments – How many Development Matters statements a child has ticked off doesn’t tell you anything about their learning and development. Choose how you want your setting’s assessments to look so that you can capture and record children’s learning accurately.

• The full picture – All of the above, combined with parents’ and carers’ own observations, mean that you have a full picture of where a child is at. The place your planning cycle in Famly starts and ends with the children in your setting. So where will you take them next?