Sheila Sage, Primary Adviser with responsibility for Early Years in Worcestershire, is joined by Ged Cotton, an infant school headteacher from Hove and previously team leader for Early Years at QCA and Diane Rich, Early Years consultant and author, and special guest Jane Hackett, nursery teacher. The panel looks at the value of multilingual staff in inner city settings. They look at the informal observations Jane makes of Amani and discuss how those observations can inform the next steps in learning. They discuss the value of making quick notes and how these can feed into a child's profile. In response to the detailed observation of Fatima, the panel give hints on how best to record the learning, including those things you should note down and those that it's not important to note. The tensions some practitioners feel about the value of standing back and observing play rather than being part of it are also discussed.

Video Series: Early Years Workshop
Release Date 2005