OOSH Documentation Questions!

[MarkPowter]

Hello!

I am currently in the process of moving into the shared position of coordinator while my boss is away on leave for several months. Unfortunately, this comes at a horrible time as we have not yet been assessed! *Insert freaking out face here*. As I am sure you can imagine, I have a million questions on the requirements for OOSH centres in relation to documentation, planning and everything else that goes into making a centre amazing. Right now my biggest concerns relate to documentation of children and I am hoping the wonderful people here will be able to assist me in relaxing and not freaking out so much

Questions!

1) While it appears there is no set requirement on the number or frequency of documentation to be completed on each children on a regular basis, the consensus appears to be one observation per child-per month. With this in mind, am I required to complete an individual observation for each child or can I ask my staff to complete group observations and learning stories and from this plan group experiences to meet the interests of a range of children while also meeting the needs of individual children. If so, what would be some suggested methods of doing this (I am hoping to put a large focus on photographing children completing activities and write small observations below that can be displayed throughout the centre. These can then be turned into much larger learning stories).

2) What are requirements for programming in OOSH? The opinions I have found vary greatly and have left me sightly confused. We currently produce a weekly program outlining the set activities for each day of the week but I am finding these to be incredibly repetitive and time consuming and also lack attention from the parents due to the amount of content. As such, I am hoping it is possible to change to a weekly plan with a much more attractive and simple way of communicating the projects and activities planned for children which we can then link back to observations and centre discussions. In short, is a weekly plan suitable? If so, what would be some suggested methods of doing this (I would love to allow the children to utilise a suggestion box as well as make use of the whiteboard in the room and create mind maps of activities children want to participate in (Photos would be taken of these for documentation purposes)).

I am sure that I am missing some HUGE questions in relation to things I need to be working on but this is a huge start and any input is greatly appreciated. ANY suggestions or reminders for things I can work on or look into would be fantastic and very helpful. I have scoured the net for information but feel I, and everyone else, has been left in the dark regarding the requirements for centres. I would really like to be able to walk in on day one of my new temporary position and be able to have a list of work I need to do so I can work through it with my staff. If you can help me build this list I am sure that other centres would find it incredibly useful and it could be added as a wonderful resource.

Thank you for your assistance. I really appreciate it and am really looking forward to hearing your ideas!

(P.S. I will make sure to keep you all updated on our progress with pictures and ideas - Keep this thread going to help all OOSH centres)
(P.S.S I should state I work in a centre within NSW)

[Lorina]

Hi Mark,

Congratulations on your new position! It's exciting to be able to "call the shots" so to speak but it also gives you a lot more responsibility within the centre. As a coordinator a lot falls on your shoulders… Don't freak out! We are here to help!!

Question 1:

No, just because you are the coordinator it doesn't mean you have to complete all the child obs on your own. Individual obs can be grouped per staff member so each staff member can have a group of children they can observe each day. Based on the days children attend work out how many children need to be observed each day in order to complete a monthly ob per child and select staff to observe specific children per day. You can use a calendar for this, add child's name on the day along with the staff of who will be observing who. Hopefully this makes sense to you…

Individual obs are required more than group obs because individual children's interests and needs have to be met and linked to the program in order to meet the requirement that individual children are being programmed for etc. There are a range of methods of observing children and you shouldn’t stick with one method throughout the year. Try different observation methods each month. Anecdotal, jottings, photo obs, learning stories these are all various ways of observing and to assess a child's overall development a variety should be used.

Remember observations are confidential and only should be accessed by staff and that child's family. Group obs and group learning stories can be displayed around the centre as this doesn't focus only on one specific child as long as it has been written for the group.

Question 2:

In regards to the program design like you said it is confusing and there are a million ways to go about it! A weekly program is probably more suitable for an OOSH service as well. You can base it upon the different areas, the routine, developmental areas, the my time our place learning outcomes etc. You could also add one column with the experiences happening throughout the week, link these with an outcome, another column to evaluate the experiences and then add a follow up. If an experience is from an observation then it could be coded. Simple and easy. I think you should come up with a few ideas and then discuss it with all the staff to see what their input and suggestions are. You should come up with a program that all staff are comfortable with and understand.

Instead of using a suggestion box maybe you could encourage the children to write their ideas and suggestions onto the white board. You could also encourage staff and families to do the same and at the end of the week you can use these suggestions to form your next week's program. Also don’t expect parents to write it down, staff should keep parent conversations and add any input or ideas through discussions from the parents. For example: if Kate's mum tells you that they are going camping on the weekend. On the whiteboard you could write "Kate camping- set up camping area in dramatic play". Just think if children and parents actually see the suggestions and ideas being made then they will be more inclined to do so.

I also have some information which I would love to share with you which I think may really help support your role as a co-ordinator.

Fact sheets For OOSH

Shared Visions For Outside School Hours

I hope I've answered your questions and best of luck in your new role. If you have any more questions, I'll be happy to help!

,
L.A

[MarkPowter]

Wow Lorina! Thank you so much for your huge reply full for fantastic information. You have cleared up so much for me about the dreaded documentation side of childcare

Question 1) Your explanation makes a lot of sense and gives me a few ideas on how I would like to run the observations. With 45 children of an afternoon, it would be impossible to complete that many observations and learning stories but if we spread them out over staff members, give them options for the way they complete their observations and plan out who needs to be observed so no one is missed, it should be a very simple task and require a lot less time to complete. I will discuss with my staff at an upcoming staff meeting to decide on a method which suits us - Maybe one of the staff members already knows how we should be doing it but hasn't spoken up yet! Thanks for clearing this up...especially in regards to observations being private and learning stories being displayed!

Question 2) I really love your idea of getting the parents more involved. It always seems like this is the hardest part of childcare but if they too can see their suggestions are being accounted for, hopefully they will work with us more. The weekly program design you have spoken of sounds fantastic and much more suited to our centre as we tend to have larger projects running over a week or two rather than a day. This not only makes it easier for me to design the program based on the children's interests but also will allow me to display it in a way which parents will view it!

Thanks so much for the links you have provided. The past few days have been spent looking at every single link in the Fact Sheets one on the Networks site and it has helped a lot! I have a lot of reading to do for the Shared Visions document but just from a quick read of the contents, it is clear this will also be a huge help! I can't thank you enough

At the moment you have made me very relaxed about what needs to be done that I can't think of another question! Hopefully someone else has an OOSH related question they can add to here so we can start to create a bit of a document for 'OOSH Requirements & Facts'

Thanks so much for your help. I will keep you updated in the coming weeks of our progress and let you know of any more freak out moments I experience

[Lorina]

No worries Mark! Happy to help out where I can! It's always a bit nerve wrecking going into a position where documentation is one of your main responsibilities. It's such a headache to try and figure it all out. Even when you got it sorted there is always a doubt with the documentation you are using. As long as it follows the regulations, the NQS and the My time Our Place framework then here is no need to stress over it.

With learning stories they aren't compulsory it's just another form of documenting. There is not set number of how many that needs to be done and you can mainly use them for special experience or events that occur within the centre.

One thing that is good about working with the older children is that they can basically write the learning stories themselves. Getting them to do some of the documentation is fantastic input and gets them more involved in their learning. So, if a an usual experience took place "Making Slime" for example, get the children who were involved to write down what they did, what they thought, what happened etc. and include photos as well. Photos will help them remember. If a few children want to write a learning story do it as a group one and include their comments etc. Since they have basically written it for themselves it's a great way to evaluate the experience first hand and will probably get the families more interested since it is coming from a child's perspective.

Completely understand how hard it is to get parents involved but every small bit helps and can be used as input within your program. Since the children are older during afternoon meetings you could ask them about any special events that may be happening within their family, what will be happening on the weekend or has happened over the weekend etc. which you could use as input as well. Sometimes you don’t need to directly go to the parents because the children can kind of speak for the family.

When adding follow up experiences onto the program you can just add something like "Johnson Family" - (experience).Highlight this onto the program for parents to easily identify. Whatever the child informs you about their family you could follow it up with their parents just to see if anything else can be added.

Have you got your policies and procedures set? Does it relate to the NQS, regulations and the service? If not, you will probably have to complete these as well which can be another headache!

Happy Reading!

,
L.A

[MarkPowter]

Thankfully your comments has helped to calm me down a lot and has made me feel like this is much more manageable than I first thought so thank you!

I think the learning stories are a fantastic way of getting the children involved. A piece of cardboard, some textas and craft supplies and the children would LOVE making a poster of their work to be displayed. The biggest problem would be limiting the number helping so it doesn't get too crazy haha I will definitely be using this idea

We currently do a centre meeting in which the children tell us about their weekends and upcoming events but have only casually taken note of these for program purposes. This will be a focus of ours now to ensure we can fill the program and meet children's needs. As I am sure you have experienced, children say some very interesting things so having it there for parents to see could spark some interesting conversations! haha

Thankfully we do have all of our policies and procedures done as well as the QIP. As far as I know, we have the majority of our larger paper work done.

I was doing some reading last night and found some information regarding 'Educational Leaders'? I am worried as this seems very essential and I know we do not currently have someone filling this position :S Is there other positions as well? Maybe OH&S? Thanks!!

[Lorina]

Good to hear that you have updated the policies and procedures...that's a large chunk of paperwork out of the way.

An educational leader is someone who is qualified and experienced who can lead the development and implementation of an educational program at the service. I think in your case that is most probably you!

While working in LDC we also had an OH&S officer who was in charge of making sure the First Aid kits were maintained and filled, report all OH&S issues to director and write them in the log book, in charge of monthly fire drills etc. maybe you can appoint a staff member for this job...not too sure if it's necessary but it's one less worry for you... Also to get staff more involved and responsibility they should be appointed to a set task for a week. Planning the menu, organise craft ideas, find group games that can be played, etc. just so they have more to do then just supervising the children...

You also mentioned about how you casually write down the things children say during your centre meetings. You can probably write these down on the white board to display for the week, then photograph as evidence. On the whiteboard you could also add under the children's comments, extension ideas etc. for the following week...

Are you doing individual portfolios?

,
L.A

[MarkPowter]

haha yea - If the policies were not done I would have NO idea what to do. No idea where to start! So glad my boss worked hard on them

Perfect That deals with that side of things nice and easily! I also love the idea of assigning staff members a weekly role. There is quite a lot of downtime at the end of the day when there is only 4-5 children left. This is a perfect time for them to spend researching and working on these areas! I love it

I started prac today for my teaching degree today at a pre-school and saw them do exactly this! They had the suggestion in one color, the child's name in another below it and an extension idea below in another color! So simple!!

We have individual children's folders on the computer in which their observations are saved as well as any photos of them or their work are saved. We also have a tub with filing sleeves labeled with each individual child's name. This way, they can store their work in there and we can scan it when we get the chance to be placed on the computer. Is there anything else we should be putting into these?

Another question I would like to ask, which I am sure a lot of people will love to hear the answer to, is in regards to websites for resources. I currently use a lot of pinterest and general google searches for craft ideas and games but I would LOVE to build up a folder of amazing crafts and games for the centre. Would you recommend any websites?

Another thing which has come up in discussion a lot lately is the idea of a continuous afternoon tea/lunch whereby children are able to eat when they want throughout the afternoon rather than a 'sit down meal'. First off, is this a requirement or simply a suggestion as I am unsure this would work at our centre :S

Once again, thanks so much Lorina and if there is anything I can do to help, let me know!

[Lorina]

Good to hear that you got to see the children's interest being documented put into practice. At least now you know what I'm talking about (if you didn't before)...

In each individual child folders, you could also add parent input forms, child feedback forms, learning stories (individual and group that the child was involved in), work samples, written documentation they did, photos of constructions/models they made which is briefly described and did you check out the portfolio templates on this site (since you're a donator, I presume so)...

Website for resources well I'm going to be very biased and recommend this site! There are so many out there you just got to search that's all! BTW: We do have Children's Activities and Games in our Wiki, linked to Child Development and Learning Outcomes. When your compiling the list or resources (crafts etc), I was just thinking you can file it under a specific learning outcome. That way in the future if someone needs to find a game/activity for L/O 2: they can look through your folder. Along with the instructions for the game/activity etc. you could also add a little with other outcomes that relate to it... Just an idea I'm throwing out there...

Having a progressive meal is an option although personally I would rather the children sit together, all at once, finish off their meal then go and play... It can just be hard to manage those children who would rather play than eat and those who miss out and those who leave it too late. I think it develops children's social skills, eating habits and healthy development if everyone sits together and at home usually the family sits at one specific time to compete their meal. No, I'm not against it at all, I just prefer it the usual way that's all!

Just wanting to help so no worries!

,
L.A

[MarkPowter]

Hey Lorina!

Thanks for the suggestions of what can be placed into the individual folders. Was a little unsure of how much we could put into these so this is a huge help! Your suggestion of parent input has made me think a little bit about parent involvement in the centre, which is always difficult to facilitate, and ways in which we can promote feedback. I have been thinking for a while of promoting a survey via our Facebook page which our parents follow as it is a quick and easy method of collecting data. My biggest worry is that parents wont complete the survey and provide feedback. Do you have any other ideas for families to provide feedback and maybe even some incentives for them to participate as well? In the past we have offered a fuel card for joining the Facebook page (Random family drawn to win) which had a great response.

Fantastic! I admit I have not yet looked in the Wiki section (Shame on me I know!) so I will be heading there right now to see your wonderful collection I am sure this will prove very useful and exciting! The idea of grouping activities by L/O is fantastic! I never even considered this. Not only will this make it easier for staff to find relevant activities but also provide casual staff with a greater understanding of the outcomes in relation to activities. You are full of ideas!!

Fantastic I 100% agree that a sit down session is a much better option and with the limited space and staff at our centre I was getting worried about trying to cater for a progressive meal. I might look into ways of making the eating experience more fun and exciting for the children such as eating outside on the oval when weather permits.

Only a few more weeks before I move into the new position! I am feeling very excited and calm now thanks to you I will make sure to document everything and try to write a bit of an OOSH guide

[catchmeifucan]

How bout getting kids to do a survey and add these into the program. This would fill the program over a month with child's interest. Helps me in the preschool room in LDC and you can do it too. Questions can be something like -

Tell us what you like to do at OOSH!
What do you like doing best at OOSH?
Is there an activity you'd like to do that we don't have here
Is there an activity or hobby of yours you'd like to bring in and show the others?
Do you have any good ideas for outings or excursions?
What is your favourite food?
What are your favourite movies, game (computer. Nintendo. PlayStation etc)?
Anything else you'd like to tell us?

Also adding obs for big kids should be simple. Should only take a couple of minutes to complete. Use clipboards with a pre-made template staff can use and they can be half the size of an A4 sheet. Just have name: date: ob: outcome: follow up: evaluation: