Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi everyone,

I've been visiting this site for a little while now but this is my first post. I've been eagerly awaiting the new online eylf tools which so far look fantastic.
I apologise in advance for the length of my post but I'm getting confused and not sure where to turn for help.

I work for a centre which owns a lot of childcare centres nationwide. We have had people come out from head office at various times since EYLF started. Each time they tell us a slightly different way that 'they' would like us to implement it. I know there are technically supposed to be no right or wrong ways of doing it but I worry that we're not really covering everything.

Originally we were told there was no need for daily or weekly plans to be put up on the wall. We all rejoiced as parents didn't look at them anyway. We were told to do learning stories, individual ones and group ones. We were to do one group story every day and it should be a story about ONE exciting event that happened that day and we were to make sure the Educators voice and the children's voice was heard in the story. We were also told to show our input and how we furthered the child's interest there and then on the day they were showing the interest rather than planning to extend it on another day or another week when they may not be interested in that topic/activity/experience. This had been working well and we were making the stories colourful, exciting and interesting and the parents were actually reading them which I think has a lot to do with the photos on them and the fact that I was making a big deal out of the stories too.

We were told there was no need for 'where to from here' as we were already extending the interest on the day which made sense but then a few months ago we were told to add a 'where to from here' and a 'reflection' to the bottom of our stories, as well as the parent comments, the analysis of learning and the links to the outcomes which we already had on there. Then we were told to add a 'context' at the beginning of the stories like if the activity was child initiated, educator initiated, parent input etc. We were also told every child needs to be in at least one group story per month as well as an individual story even though we had brought up the fact that in the EYLF they regard quality over quantity.

After looking at your website and forum over and over I started wondering if we were missing something. We had also had a visit from the department who said "Your stories look terrific, but where's your wall plan, and what about the children who aren't in the daily story?" We were confused as in the kinder room we have 30 children per day, there is no way we can include all 30 children by name in the story each day. Also head office had told us we didn't need a wall plan.

After bringing this up with head office they said of course we couldn't include every child every day and that we were doing is fine. We have now got a new 'expert' from head office who seems much better. She said there is no exact amount of stories we need to do each month but she is spouting something about at the start of the term having an indoor and outdoor piece of paper then list the five outcomes then write down what you want to achieve for the term with regard to these outcomes and how you plan to do it then throughout the term do kind of like a mind map adding on each day's activities that are building towards the outcomes. Then at the end of the term you reflect about how things went, what you could improve upon etc. I'm not sure how the individual stories fit into this as she is coming out on friday to go over everything with us.

I'm totally confused and not sure what to do this week with my planning. We were told to stay away from box type formats as they were not pedagogically correct or something like that.

Anyway, what I want to know is about the actual info you are typing in on your online tools. Are you adding those experiences throughout the day as they happen? Are some of them planned ahead from individual and group stories that had extensions on them? Also, are your daily reflections basically evaluating the experiences you have listed on your curriculum plan?

I'm sure I have many more questions to ask but will leave it at that for now

Thank you

Sorry, a few more questions, what is the drop down date box for on the Weekly curriculum plan? Might be a silly question but if we already know which day of the week it's under and the plan is for the week ending ..... then why do we need to put the date in on every day and every activity?

Also, are you evaluating the daily activities that you are entering into the curriculum somewhere else other than the daily reflection as the daily reflection would be far too long to evaluate everything on there?

Hi Beth,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the EYLF. It is interesting to read how other centres are incorporating the EYLF into their settings and like you said there is no right or wrong way to get it done.

It sounds like you are putting a lot of thought and effort into the learning stories which is fantastic. But I think when using the EYLF learning stories is one form of documentation that can be used. I think that having a curriculum plan is an essential part of documenting the learning experiences that take place throughout the day. On the curriculum plan you include input keys which tell others where the experience has come from as well as clearly link the learning to the EYLF. I know that it must be confusing having to go by what head office wants you to do… I think that sometimes there can be too many experts trying to figure out the best way to go about the documentation that needs to be done.

We were also told to show our input and how we furthered the child's interest there and then on the day they were showing the interest rather than planning to extend it on another day or another week when they may not be interested in that topic/activity/experience.

I agree! If you notice a child or group interest emerge you should extend on it on the day. Even if you have experiences already added onto your program you should scrap that and focus on the interest. Then in your Daily Dairy you evaluate and explain the interest that took place on that day. Yes, sometimes when we plan to extend on it at another time, the children may not show any interest,. Howere there may be times when you have to gather resources, get supplies and plan further in which case you will need to extend upon it another day. If the children are showing an interest, it shouldn't matter which day you plan for it.

 She said there is no exact amount of stories we need to do each month but she is spouting something about at the start of the term having an indoor and outdoor piece of paper then list the five outcomes then write down what you want to achieve for the term with regard to these outcomes

That's right, as far as I know there is no amount of learning stories which need to be completed...I complete learning stories for spontaneous experience that may emerge throughout the day and child interest. Also, if the children are engaged in a specific activity. I try and do at least 2 - 3 learning stories per week.

It sounds like the indoor and outdoor piece of paper is some sort of program...LOL.. Nah, I kinda get what you mean. Have short team learning outcomes in both inddor and outdoor environments and use the activities to achieve them. Yeah, maybe it could work. It's all about trial and error. I would rather go by a currciuulm plan because I can clearly link and justify why I added the experience/activity to the environment.

Anyway, what I want to know is about the actual info you are typing in on your online tools. Are you adding those experiences throughout the day as they happen?

Well currently I use weekly curriculum plan learning outcome based. I add experiences onto the following weeks curriculum plan from the extension ideas gathered by "reflections of our day" and other ideas. So, by Monday morning I will already have the weeks curriculum plan completed. This doesn't include any spontaneous experiences that emerge (I will add these as they happen).

 Also, are your daily reflections basically evaluating the experiences you have listed on your curriculum plan?

Yes, throughout the daily reflection you should be evaluating what is on the curriculm plan however you don't need to include the same experiences each day. Just focus on the ones that the children really took an interest to.

I will be iterested to hear what head office says and what they want you to implement. Let me kow if you're having anymore troubles and I'll see what I can do.

Cheers .
L.A