Program display

[nikki_]

Hi there,

I have just been promoted to educational leader and have been giving a hard task of finding a new program format that will work for our centre.
I have my expectations of what I need the senior educators to complete but was wondering if anyone could clarify exactly what your centres display of the program ?

Any pictures would be a great help

Thanks
Nikki

[Lorina]

Hi Nikki!

Congratulations on your new role!

In regards to the program, it depends on your centres needs and expectations! What works for some may not work for others... It may take some time to trial different types of programs to find out what suits the needs of the educators. Are you having one format that all educators must use, or are educators able to choose how they will like to display their program that suits them? As long as they following your requirements and expectations on programming you could give them an option to choose their own...

You should also have a conversation with each educator to get an idea on what they feel comfortable with in regards to the program...

Just an idea!

,
Lorina

[Lorina]

There are a variety of different programming templates available on here:

Templates

Maybe you could use it for inspiration...

,
Lorina

[nikki_]

Thanks Lorina.

Alot of my senior educators are studying diploma and are new to the role as it is a brand new centre. They are still building their confidence, so i have chosen for everyone (except the ECT) to follow the same format until they feel more confident to branch out.

The problem i am still having is my area manager would like to see more themes in the rooms. This is something we struggle with in our area as the most children are from broken families and or hard cases and dont know how to sit and play. Their interest changes daily so it is hard to create a theme in the room.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated

Nikki

[Lorina]

When you say "themes" are you referring to like a fortnightly topic to implement as part of intentional teaching such as My Body, Feelings, Seasons, Weather etc?

,
Lorina

[nikki_]

Yes, precisely.

[Lorina]

Ok, so you can include them as part of your intentional teaching.

When you are choosing a theme I would suggest you link it to an outcome as a group goal. For example: - My Body - can link with 3.2 Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical well-being. For each separate activity that comes under the theme, you could use a sub outcome for the goal. For example - creating a collage on one of the 5 food groups an outcome could be - show an increasing awareness of healthy lifestyles and good nutrition (3.2.8).

At the end of the week (if you are doing a weekly theme), it would be good to reflect on whether the group achieved the goals (outcomes), how they did it and what you're going to do to extend their learning. I wouldn't suggest you have pre- themed ideas such as Week 1 - My Body, Week 2 - Seasons etc. because you can still follow the interests of the children. So, if you were to do My Body to extend on this you could to All About Me, from here you could do Cultural Diversity, it depends on where the children's interest lie, even if you do a theme...

Hope this makes sense...

,
Lorina