Kate Shelley 00:00:15 --> 00:00:34 Hello, welcome back to the final session of Tales Toolkit. You've been introduced to the three principles, which are safe, space child-led, and fun. You know how to use all of the resources and you've been creating and recording lots of imaginative stories with your children. 00:00:35 --> 00:00:56 Today's session is time to reflect, to look back at how you've been doing, think of some next steps, and also to give yourself a great big pat on the back for all the fantastic creative storytelling you've been doing with your children. Teaching is a tough job and you don't celebrate the achievements enough. You are doing an amazing job. 00:00:57 --> 00:01:38 So, the theme of today's session is, look how great we are. I'm not going to be talking as much today. Instead, you are going to have time to reflect on how it's been going with Tales Toolkit. And at the end of the session, all of the notes can be collected to create one report with lots of information about the fantastic job you're doing. But before we get going, let's have a quick talk about progress you've been using. Tales toolkit across your provision, collaboratively telling stories, but also setting children up using the Tales Toolkit structure independently to create stories and solve real life problems. Sandra Matthews 00:01:39 --> 00:02:17 Through that interest of these particular children playing in boxes, being pirates, they would then say, right, okay, well there's a problem, there's a problem, what can we do? And the other little ones would say, well, let's find a solution. They never had this concept before of through a problem. There would always be a solution, and that was through Tales Toolkit. So that was amazing to see that they're getting a concept now of no matter what you face in life or, or what problems are ahead, let's find something to let's find a solution. Let's find out how we can help this out. Kate Shelley 00:02:18 --> 00:02:33 You want to show off the big picture for people visiting your school and let others see your children as creative problem solvers and independent thinkers. This shouldn't add to your workload because you've already got lots of tools to assess and show progress. Sharon Anderson 00:02:34 --> 00:02:48 It dovetailed really nicely with how, with our conflict resolution strategy, with the helicopter technique that, you know, I was already passionate about. So, the story scribing, things like that. Um, but it's sort of like an extra, an extra level. On top of that. Kate Shelley 00:02:49 --> 00:03:06 As a school, you are already assessing lots of areas of learning and your school data gives you a lot of information. You know, the areas of learning that have been impacted through using Tale's Toolkit, which areas of learning are shown most progress? Can this be attributed to Tale's Toolkit? Rachel Lloyd 00:03:07 --> 00:03:20 Um, lots of the children that we teach have really, really low language levels when they first come into school. Um, and I've seen a huge improvement in their language, in their expressive language, and obviously their receptive language. Um, through the sessions. Kate Shelley 00:03:21 --> 00:04:17 Are there particular groups of children who were responding to Tales Toolkit better than others? And can this be seen in your data? Can you use Tales Toolkit to help develop any areas that need improving? And I have a separate sheet that has questions for you to think about when looking at your school data, but it's also important to collect the stories behind the data to really bring the numbers to life with what this looks like for the children in your class. And you already doing these observations and writing samples that you add to children's books over time will create a picture of what's been going on and you've been using the Tales Toolkit, big book to record stories and learning, noting down all those fantastic moments. It could be the first time a pro-social element is used or the first time a child contributes to a group story. Rebecca Sherwood 00:04:18 --> 00:05:09 See, we have Learning Journey books where you keep observations, we keep children's work samples, photographs, children's comments. Parents also contribute that in the home. And we use those. We look at all that information. It gives us very rich information about the children's learning and different points of the year. We'll make a judgment on where we think they sit within there, looking at their age, what and what we'd expect for their age, which developmental bands that we think that they're working in. Um, so Tales Toolkit, compliments what we already do. Um, the writing samples, the stories that they've told us, the drawings that they do with their stories, uh, go across a number of areas of learning, uh, and you can see really, really clear progress, um, throughout the year from their very sort of simple stories, just through real detail and at length and the drawings that go with them and the mark making and the emergent writing that happens as well. So, it complements our assessment procedure Kate Shelley 00:05:10 --> 00:05:36 In the Tales toolkit. Big book, you'll also have lots of examples of scribed stories. Scribing children's stories is a great way of showing progress when you use the kit and record the child's story exactly as they say it, then you take a snapshot of the child's language and vocab creativity and understanding of the story. And over time you'll be able to see development in the stories. Sharon Anderson 00:05:37 --> 00:06:53 Yes, for Rahima, um, her first story was two words. Um, and her final story is just amazing. It's really long. Um, lots of ideas linked together. Um, and she's one of the children who was, I mean, I never had any concerns about her language because I could see that the understanding and the listening intention was fine. Um, it was just that confidence. So, uh, yeah, this really gave her the confidence to speak, um, her ideas and her thoughts and the feelings as well, but also bringing in her knowledge of stories too. She's one of the, the first who started to bring in the Gingerbread Man and Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf and things like that. So, um, yeah, it was just amazing for her. Absolutely amazing. Kate Shelley 00:06:54 --> 00:07:27 The Tales Toolkit Big book could also be renamed the look how great we are, book being all together in one place. It's easy to see storytelling progress over time. Tales Toolkit, big book shows how the children have been developing their confidence, language, creativity, and building independence. It models consistency in use across the classes and the school, and it also shows all of the thoughts going into the props provided and gives an idea of your role as facilitator. 00:07:28 --> 00:08:06 There are two parts to the rest of today's training. Part One Reflection. I have a tool to help you reflect, celebrate what's been going well, and think about some next steps to improve your practice. Part two, communication. I have a tool that will help you to communicate with others and to make links with offstage requirements. I created these tools using a number of different documents and assessment sources, including Echoes, the Stew Scales, Ofsted framework, and lots more to create activities that are useful linking with Tales Toolkit. 00:08:07 --> 00:08:25 So, let's get going with Part One reflection. In this section, I want us to spend some time reflecting on what good practice looks like. Think about the things that you're doing well decide on some next steps to improve your practice using Tales Toolkit. Rachel Lloyd 00:08:26 --> 00:08:57 Be difficult at the very beginning, not to tell my own story, um, and not to lead the children. Um, I think I still have to hold myself back now, especially when I'm trying to role play with the characters to take it off in that I don't take it off in a different direction. Um, so that was the, the trickiest thing is to hold back and actually listen to the children. Um, but I can tell that I have started to do that because the children are independent in telling their stories. So, it's not coming from me, it's actually coming from them. Kate Shelley 00:08:58 --> 00:17:53 The exercise for this is based around the Three Tails, toolkit, principles, safe Space, child led, and fun. I've created a tool for reflection and included a sum element of best practice to show the kind of things you should be doing when using Tales Toolkit. And there are some questions for you to reflect on if the Tales Toolkit facilitator can split you up into groups and give each group one of the principles to reflect on. I want you to think about what you do well and how you can improve. And just before I bring you back together, I'll give you a few minutes to decide on one action that you're going to set to improve your Tales Toolkit practice. 00:17:54 --> 00:20:16 Okay, you've got two minutes left. Decide on one action to improve your Tales Toolkit practice, make it achievable, who's going to do it and by when. 00:20:17 --> 00:25:32 So, would you like to share with the group one thing you do well and your action for improvement? 00:25:33 --> 00:26:28 And learn from each other. Plan in time for peer observations. Tell big group tells toolkit stories together. Share resources that work well and learn from others. That uses the Tales Toolkit by joining the forum. So, we've talked about impact, thought about good practice and created some next steps. Part two is all about communicating how to best tell others about what you're doing. Talking to the senior leadership team of Stu Inspectors, borough advisors can often be really scary, but use this as an opportunity to show off about the fantastic work that you're doing, really brag about the great work that's happening and say, look how great we are. Often the difference between a good and outstanding setting is the confidence of the senior leadership team and teachers that they're doing the best for their children and their ability to be able to talk about it. Rebecca Sherwood 00:26:29 --> 00:27:30 You need to be really confident that what you are doing is best and the right thing for the children, and that you need to remember that officer have no set, um, guidance on what pedagogy and your practices should be. When you look at the teaching and learning section of the offset framework, it compliments everything we do. It talks about modelling and scaffolding, children's learning, and it absolutely compliments and what we're doing in the nursery, you need to have a really be, um, strong about what you're doing, have your evidence of why it's making a difference, have that impact the so what whatever we do, we have to ask ourselves. So, what, so what difference has it made to the children, to their learning, to their development? We justify that. Um, and you need to feel, it's just that feeling confident and, um, are sometimes arguing your case and being persistent and showing off said what that looks like in practice and triangulating everything. So, you show them your assessments, you show them the children's learning book and you go Children's Learning Journey books. Then you go and look at what the children are doing and if all that information matches, then you are fine. Dr Julian Grenier 00:27:31 --> 00:28:31 In, in terms of the way Ofsted inspects early years. The, these are some of the things we'd encourage teachers to think. The first thing is that anted inspection should really be a professional dialogue between yourself as a teacher and the Ofsted inspector. So, we really encourage practitioners to be confident about articulating what they're doing and pointing inspectors to how it works. What's the evidence that it works? Being confident to tell inspectors what are still challenges or bits of work in progress, but talk about how you are overcoming those challenges. And we think that in early years especially, but throughout the whole school system, teachers have got to be able to talk very confidently about how they're helping children who face disadvantage to catch up with their peers and to make good progress. How they're supporting all children, how they're working with parents, how they're promoting inclusion and diversity. Kate Shelley 00:28:32 --> 00:29:21 Have faith in what you're doing. Remember in session one when we talked about the things that you're doing now and how that develops the skills that children need to do well throughout life, communication, creativity, and collaboration. That's what you are teaching. You are setting your children up for a better future with higher chances of achievement and secure relationships. So have confidence to talk to others about this. If you are asked about literacy in your setting, explain to them about the muscle development that's happening when they're creating stories and foam. Discuss the early stages of phonics involved in story and song. Talk about the language development and creativity you're developing. That's key for the children throughout school. Have the confidence to talk about what you're doing. 00:29:22 --> 00:40:58 The next exercise is all about communicating. I want you to think about how you communicate with others, how you communicate so they can see all of the great work that you're doing. And this exercise is based again on the three principles of Safe Space Child-led and fun. I've created a tool for reflecting in the top box written in black are offset statements that can be impacted through using Tale's Toolkit underneath in pink. I've made a note of what this looks like using Tale's Toolkit in the bottom left box, I want you to make a note of what does this look like in your setting? Are there particular groups of children that have grown in confidence through using Tales Toolkit? And why do you think this is? Is it because they know their answers are valued or because they're engaged by the fun props based around their interests? Paint box, I want you to think about how you would evidence this. Is it shown in your school data? Can you see progress in language inscribed stories in the Tales toolkit? Big book or is that evidence in the children's learning journey? Books work in your groups. If your facilitator can give each group one of the principles to look at 00:40:59 --> 00:46:14 how did that go? Did you have lots to show off about? I want you to share one point with the group. 00:46:15 --> 00:46:50 Use these documents. It shouldn't be paperwork that gets shoved in the back of a cupboard. Get together as a team and decide how you will use these tools. Maybe plan in a Tales toolkit meeting at regular intervals, perhaps three times a year to review practice and decide on next steps. And this is also another chance to say, look how great we are to show that you're doing great things, but also that you are reflecting and thinking about how you can improve. You are making a difference to children at the most vital stage in their school life, right at the beginning. Julie Holmes 00:46:51 --> 00:47:26 You now know there's lots of research that shows how important it is to provide children with quality interactions while they're young. And how this impacts all the way through life. You know, it's the first five years, it's the quickest in terms of development. Um, if there's certain stages that children go through and they're really key moments for a child to, you know, develop their language and to, to, um, and to pick up, you know, words. Um, and to learn communication skills. If children miss those points, it can be really difficult to try and catch up later on down the line. Kate Shelley 00:47:27 --> 00:48:06 But a lot of the work you're doing now might not show immediate benefits. Tales toolkit has been developed based on research to make sure that children will do well all the way through life. And not just this term story itself is a really powerful tool, particularly when children experiment with creating their own stories around a clear structure. Tell others about the brain development that happens through story. Use these facts and tell others that what you are doing now is setting children up for later success. And check out our members page for links to further research. 00:48:07 --> 00:49:20 So, in today's session, you've reflected on your practice and created a few next steps so you can continue to improve and you've thought about how you can communicate with others, thinking about what you might discuss. I just want to end by saying a big well done on getting this far Tales Toolkit is really adaptable. And over time, I'm sure you're going to continue coming up with new creative ways of using the kit and improving your practice. A lot of today's session comes back to one thing, shout about the great things that you're doing. Say, look how great we are. Sometimes with all of the stresses of teaching and all the paperwork involved, you can forget what an amazing job you're doing. And I want to end by bringing you back to something I said in session One. We have no idea what the future holds for your children, but we do know that children who are creative problem solvers have good communication skills and high levels of wellbeing are going to fare far better in an ever-changing world. And I'm sure by now you'll have realized the potential that Tales Toolkit has to really make a difference, Sandra Matthews 00:49:21 --> 00:50:00 Taps into every area of, of development with the language, with the listening, the communicating, the personal social and emotional development. Maths comes into play because you've got positional language, you've got counting, you've got it. It taps into pretty much every area of development and it, and it's really, you can make your own resources up. You can add, you could go with a child's interest, go with their, their favourite character you can go with. It really is about your individual unique child and just having fun through storytelling and play.