Reflective Practice
Reflective Practice
Reflective practice is important because it gives us a chance to identify which areas of the setting need improving, and enables us to assess our own performance personally and what we need to improve on; reflecting on these things helps to identify what training we may need to take. It gives the staff the opportunity to reflect and exchange ideas then use the knowledge we have acquired to help us with future planning.
Most importantly, reflective practice allows us to learn from experience which no amount of textbook reading or college training can replace. Reflective practice is only worthwhile if you implement the changes you have noted you need to make. We use reflective practice every day in the pre-school. We observe how the children play and use this to see what we can do to extend child initiated play. We have sheets for ideas for the next weeks’ plan which we use to record any requests the children have made or any observations we have made.
We have an annual training review in which we have a meeting with our manager and assess which areas we need more training and improvement. We look through the available courses which are made available to us through the local early years department. We have Advisory Teachers, who come in and make observations about our practices and give us impartial feedback and support in areas they feel we need to work on improving.
I have monthly supervision meetings with my manager where we talk about my own personal and professional development and what areas I am doing well in and what needs improving. I have thought about what has been discussed and worked on the issues raised, I feel this has improved my practice.
Over the past few years we have completely changed our way of working, through constantly reviewing what we were doing right and wrong. and getting our staff rota right so we could fit in our daily routines without compromising how much quality time we spent with the children.
Reflective practice is important because it gives us a chance to identify which areas of the setting need improving, and enables us to assess our own performance personally and what we need to improve on; reflecting on these things helps to identify what training we may need to take. It gives the staff the opportunity to reflect and exchange ideas then use the knowledge we have acquired to help us with future planning.
Most importantly, reflective practice allows us to learn from experience which no amount of textbook reading or college training can replace. Reflective practice is only worthwhile if you implement the changes you have noted you need to make. We use reflective practice every day in the pre-school. We observe how the children play and use this to see what we can do to extend child initiated play. We have sheets for ideas for the next weeks’ plan which we use to record any requests the children have made or any observations we have made.
We have an annual training review in which we have a meeting with our manager and assess which areas we need more training and improvement. We look through the available courses which are made available to us through the local early years department. We have Advisory Teachers, who come in and make observations about our practices and give us impartial feedback and support in areas they feel we need to work on improving.
I have monthly supervision meetings with my manager where we talk about my own personal and professional development and what areas I am doing well in and what needs improving. I have thought about what has been discussed and worked on the issues raised, I feel this has improved my practice.
Over the past few years we have completely changed our way of working, through constantly reviewing what we were doing right and wrong. and getting our staff rota right so we could fit in our daily routines without compromising how much quality time we spent with the children.