An account of my personal practice with child S, planning provision for her taking into account her individual needs and constructive feedback to help her evaluate her achievements and facilitate further learning.

Fulfil wider professional responsibilities by promoting positive partnership, working to support child S and reflect on the effectiveness of the provision. Propose appropriate changes and support the implementation of improved policies and procedures at the setting.

Child S is a 36 month old child who has been attending morning sessions at our day nursery for the past two months. In the afternoon she stays home with her mother. Child S has a new baby brother called T.

Before planning activities to observe child S, I carefully analysed her previous observations made by her keyworker K. These observations informed me about the child’s current learning and development and would tell me what her learning needs were.

Going through the incident records of child S, I noticed a recent incident recorded by the keyworker, where child S’s fingers hurt. S’s mother explained that child S’s fingers had been accidentally shut in a car door.

I supported the key worker in having a meeting with child S’s mother to identify the child’s requirements, interests and current development and learning. This would also highlight any domestic factors that are affecting her progress. On the basis of what I had learned from her observation record and detailed discussions with S’s mother, I planned the following activities.

I planned an activity involving a role play café within the setting. Before this I planned to allow S to help make a cake and biscuits for the café role play later. Staff member K is child S’s keyworker. Mature student B was also involved in the activity, who had joined the setting on an eight week placement.

My focus will be to organise an activity and then observing S to allow me to understand how better to support child S’s learning and development. The observations will help me understand her personal development, social development, emotional development, making relationships and overall learning and development. These observations are to be linked into the Early Years Foundation Stage. In so doing I will be able to develop a personalised learning plan for her. In particular I can plan adult led, child initiated play and activities which will stimulate and inspire child S’s learning.

The questions I will focus on are:
1. What child S is paying attention to or is interested in.
2. What experiences she has of these activities.
3. What child S already knows.
4. What child S actually does during the activities.

I planned this activity in a small group with the help of K and B, where child S is a child I am observing in greater detail than the others.

Before starting the activity I put a few items on a table for the children to see. I put out flour, sugar, eggs, raisins and a bowl. I said we were going to bake some buns. I noticed S was finding paying attention difficult. I remembered that she would pay more attention during adult led play such as singing during circle time. English was S’s second language at home, however she did show some understanding of actions during circle time rhymes. Therefore I suggested that we sing a rhyme with the children. We sang the rhyme beginning, “Five currant buns in a baker’s shop, round and fat with a cherry on top”. We would imitate a round and fat bun as an action during the rhyme. S vocalised back the approximations of the words during the rhyme, for example ‘top instead of ‘shop’. The children including S became more engaged and held the items and asked the names, which K, B and I answered.

I made a risk assessment in respect to making the buns and having them baked in an oven. In terms of the health and safety of the staff and children, the cook explained the process of cooking in the oven. She also showed the children her oven gloves. She