The Early Years Staff Meeting
Have you ever sat through a staff meeting and thought, 'but how is this relevant to Early Years?' Do you want on-the-go CPD that supports you to develop your EYFS practice in a way that holds the best interests of the children at the heart? Would you like this delivered by passionate and experienced Early Years teachers who know the realities of working in a busy setting? Then come and join us at The Early Years Staff Meeting to explore the magic and mayhem of the EYFS. Grab a cuppa, rest those feet that you've been on all day and delve into all things Early Years with us. Learn, listen and laugh with The Early Years Staff Meeting.
The Early Years Staff Meeting
Instagram perfection VS reality, continuous provision part 2 and 'good enough is perfect'.
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Frustrated with the pressure to create Pinterest-worthy learning environments on a shoestring budget? Overwhelmed by the onslaught of Insta-perfect classrooms that make your setting feel inadequate? Join us as we vent about the unrealistic standards set by social media, and how this constant comparison affects our work in the early learning profession. This episode is a judgment-free zone where we champion authenticity over aesthetics and share how you can make the most of what you've got, even if it's not picture perfect.
We delve into the practical side of things too, discussing how to maximize the use of classroom furniture for accessibility and functionality, and how you can find or repurpose inexpensive resources for engaging learning areas. Are you short on space? We've got solutions for that too, with tips on using wheels and pack and plays to navigate limited room. We also discuss the power of labelling and the innovative use of shadowing to help keep things tidy. Towards the end we share a mindful moment about the power of mantras. So take a deep breath, let go of the unrealistic expectations, and join us for a candid conversation about what truly matters in early learning.
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Hello and welcome to the earlier staff meeting podcast with Sarah Keelian Steff, a place where you can listen, learn and laugh with us about all things early years. Hello, welcome everyone.
Speaker 2Hello and welcome. We're back Episode two. We're back Episode two.
Speaker 1Series two, episode two.
Speaker 2I know, okay, so this week we are, we're going to have a professional vent. I love this, so professional vent is a phrase that we use here in our setting, where we just want to have a wow and just let loose about something.
Speaker 1It's a bit in professional Guys.
Speaker 2Okay, no effing and jeffing.
Speaker 3Oh no.
Speaker 2We're very good, and then our main agenda today is we're carrying on with about provisions, setting up provision, but we're going to talk about the furniture and the accessibility of the furniture and and the interior yeah, in your setting. And then our staff voice. We're going to be talking about some of our experiences, maybe some hacks about getting cheap furniture and resources which you might get off.
Speaker 3I love shopping.
Speaker 2Finish off with our mindful moment, which we're going to talk about mantras today, and then any other business at the end. Okay, I'll be ready, ladies Special venting time.
Speaker 3Get ready to feel better on the inside, so we're ranting about social media.
Speaker 2So while I've been doing, you know, taking over the Instagram and having a go at uploading the stuff I did, I was advised to look at research and to look at what people are looking at so that to grow your followers basically you copy what other people are doing, which got my first backup, because when I did my research, lots of people and practitioners are making everything look too beautiful.
Speaker 2There is a lot of stuff in the photos it doesn't look real, and it really got my backup because I don't want to do that. Yeah, but it's kind of like a double-edged sword If you don't make, if you don't follow the crowd, people aren't going to follow you, you know. So that it just really made me really angry and it got me thinking about what an impact this is having on our on our profession. Really, yeah, because last week we were talking about switching off. Yeah, but if you're constantly bombarded with all these amazing images of wooden toys and amazing pieces of expensive furniture just lots of busyness and rainbows and perfect displays Perfect displays lots of labels, overly done to a theme, yeah, and stuff.
Speaker 2Now I get it. People are making a living and I don't knock that. I'm all up for, you know, women and practitioners having a side hustle. I think that's brilliant, but I think it's just too much. It's not real and I feel as though it's creating this huge expectation that if you're going to go into a setting, that you have to make your setting look absolutely amazing, and actually it does. In practice it gets trashed.
Speaker 3Yeah, it does Five minutes in Wouldn't it be like the real life we need, like pictures of.
Speaker 1Instagram versus reality, yeah this is what it actually looks like.
Speaker 2I did see a tiny bit of that, but not much, and I feel as though in our industry, we need to be real.
Speaker 3Yeah, I think that is coming through slowly, Like last week. I said about the one with the teacher doing with the corn flour. That was very real and they were very real photos when you look on there clearly there isn't as much of that.
Speaker 1No, there is a lot of, so a lot of setting up.
Speaker 3That's why I kind of saw it. I was like, oh, I don't see that often. That looks like a bit of us, and kind of looked in it and thought, oh, that's that. That is like what we do.
Speaker 2And I think there's a lot of pressure to make something look Insta-perfect.
Speaker 1I think it makes you feel quite inadequate when you see things like that, and if you're not, no one's perfect. But if you're not that way, if you don't have the time or the money or the resources, it's the money you're using and the budgets are tight. Yeah, and we've us three being sort of working mums.
Speaker 1we don't have a full week to come into work and commit it to getting our glass and look beautiful, like it's sort of grabbing an hour here and there and probably bringing the children in at the same time and having them like absolutely trashing the role play that you've just spent an hour setting up while you're setting up the sand, you know it's yeah.
Speaker 2And there's also a lot of videos on there about adults setting activities and things like that. And there's a lot of onerous on adults, which, when you are overwhelmed and overworked to have that bombarded in your face, puts a lot of pressure on people and actually it doesn't need to be that way. It really doesn't. And it just really got my back up Because I was like, well, how am I supposed to create a community for this when this is all being shoved in your face? And it's not just Instagram, it's Pinterest.
Speaker 2I mean that was the thing when I was started teaching. Pinterest was the be all learned tool. And it was all about right. I'm going to take this image on Pinterest and make my classroom look just like that. And it was just so unobtainable, it was unreal.
Speaker 3I must say when doing the outside area myself and a TA when we were doing it, looking at doing bits we were showing each other things from Pinterest. But actually it was lovely we said we really want something like that. But it was like a stream in the middle of the thing. We're like oh, we've got pebbles and stuff and, yes, we would love something like that. And I said, yeah, that would be great. How are we ever going to get to that point, though we don't have a stream.
Speaker 3No we're in the middle of our outside area and as much as yes, the children would get a lot out of it and it does look amazing, like amazing, but we just couldn't obtain it and then, when we did try to do it that way, it didn't look anything like it.
Speaker 3And it turned out no good, and it's a bit like well, you kind of almost have to work with what you've got and who you've got and how you're going to get to where you want with your ethos as well, and not to almost let that stuff bombard your head too much.
Classroom Furniture
Speaker 1And I think we have to remember that our ethos here is less is more and it's substance over style rather than the other way around. So some of the things that we use, they don't always look the prettiest. We got so much out of an old Ikea shelf that's like a square and it had a couple of red scrappy bits of material stapled onto them and that was the puppet theatre, and the children absolutely loved it. They didn't need anything more.
Speaker 1It's done it's time, Keri, and you know, okay, it may not look as beautiful as some of the other things that you sort of see, but it did the job.
Speaker 3The big puppet shows. Yeah, like I did, like try and get my husband to try and make me one. He was like I'm not making you one, but so then we do, we just use the Ikea thing and they love those portable and I think we're going to talk about this in the main agenda, but just using what you've got.
Speaker 2It is yeah, and actually it's okay. As long as it is meeting the children's needs and the children's interests, then it's okay. It you know, and a lot of the stuff on social media is window dressing.
Speaker 2It makes something look absolutely amazing, but mostly it is overwhelming. It's cognitive overload and actually the children aren't actually going to be able to use the window dressed items for anything other than just to look at it. So I think, advice for our listeners if they're, you know, panicking about how they're classroom or how they're setting and their areas look, just cast over it with a like, a critical eye, Just think what are the children going to get out of this?
Speaker 2What can they actually use it for, and is it safe and is it purposeful? And it doesn't have to look like some of the settings that you see, and actually, if you have lots of brightly colored items, that is okay it doesn't have to be a natural thing that is, you know, being used, and I get the science behind it, but just use what you have. You have to use what you've got really don't you to start with. Exactly so. That is my professional.
Speaker 1How do you feel now, Sarah? Do you feel better? I feel hurt.
Speaker 2I love a purge, I'm hurt. Yes, I'm hurt. Yes, yes, okay, moving on to our main agenda Good, good, good, good, good Good.
Speaker 1So we are continuing to talk about setting up your provision, your continuous provision, and today we're going to focus a little bit on the different furniture that we might have in the classrooms or in the settings and the accessibility of those to the children.
Speaker 2So, yeah, we looked at resources last week. Now we're going to look at the actual furniture and Some. If you've joined earlier years, you will have inherited furniture. Yes, if you are Like me, you will have collected furniture and oddities over your time.
Speaker 3I'm just looking at the picnic bench. It's actually really been in here for a very long time.
Speaker 2It has been tired resources.
Speaker 3Yeah, needs another paint. It does things need you know, but that's okay, because things Like doesn't have to look perfect, but also it's still usable. It's very usable. It just needs a quick look at paint, you'll be fine.
Speaker 2So we're going to talk about accessibility. So you may have entered a classroom and there's lots of tables and furniture and cupboards and You're hoping to do continuous provision. So what you need to do is, again, start with the editing, look around, get on your knees, get to the children's level and have a look. Mm-hmm, what do the children see? Yeah, what, what can they access at their level? Now, you might have a lot of draw units. I know that I certainly did. Yeah, we've still got quite a few draw units around. And can the children access the provision? Can they get to the drawers? Can they see inside them? Can they look at the shelves? So the shelves too high and Apart from, are they safe? But you know, are they able? Is the furniture able?
Speaker 3to store.
Speaker 2The actual resources that you need. So you've edited all those resources. You know you've got them all in lovely boxes or baskets or trays. Do they actually fit? So that is something you need to work out. And now we draw units. I Think some tips for draw units, because they're a like a staple of any. You know school, you're gonna get them.
Speaker 3Wherever the classroom you're going, you're gonna get them.
Speaker 2Is to do sort of every other trade. Yeah, take, take those out, or every two trays so that you can See inside the tray. Yeah, your children can actually see what's in there. They won't look at a label if you've got labels on there unless you've specifically trained them to do that, which takes time they're not gonna look in there. So, yeah, take everyone out so you can have a look. Take the wheels off of them if they're too tall or they slide around, because that would make it and say all the legs are too tall.
Speaker 3We've, we've sort of quite a few legs. That's just the children.
Speaker 2Obviously not like the school metal leg tables we haven't seen that. We've where we've gone to second-hand shots yeah. We've got tables and furniture. We have actually physically hacked into them to make the right height for children. Yeah, children like that, low things. Mission. Before you do that guys, yeah, just get you sore, or no get your house.
Speaker 1Get your sight agent to help you, so that you're not Do a risk assessment, please.
Speaker 2You know, once you've had permission, make you know, have a go at tinkering with it and an upstair bit of upcycling. Yeah, you can make things. You know. Paint goes along, because not every budget is going to be able to afford no ridiculous amounts of and then turn it and start with, like when we took the drawers out.
Speaker 3We did that a while ago, didn't we? A? Few years ago we started doing it and like I quite like it when, like you've got the drawers, or like next to each other. So for me that was a little bit like oh, there's loads of drawers missing. It really annoyed me. But like now I'm be like well, why is all the drawers there? You can't see the stuff inside.
Speaker 3Yeah it's about training. Yeah, it is training yourself as well. That actually is better for the children. They can see right inside those drawers. Otherwise you've got the other drawer on top of what's in there and then you're trying to pull it out because half the things are too big to go in the Rolf. They get stuck and they all fall out. You know what I'm talking about? The other hack with drawers is.
Speaker 2I managed to get hold of some old laminate flooring Again. I sawed them to the height, to the width, to fit inside, so they made it look like shelling.
Speaker 1Yeah, I love that idea.
Speaker 2Yeah, that worked really well, and I got that off of Facebook Marketplace because it was free. So, you can. There are little little handy hacks and things like that you can do to make Open, accessible shelving for all your provisions.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And it can actually. And also, we talked about drawers. They're all brightly coloured. That is okay. Start with what you have. You don't need to plunge into this. No natural low, you know Calm classroom, because that takes time. It takes a lot of money, that is, see grass baskets.
Speaker 1Oh, really expensive, they are really expensive, and so just one of the things we spent a lot of money on is trying to, because we've got brightly coloured tables, haven't we in the Cross, the classroom? So we've well, some of them and the more wooden natural colors and some of them are the sort of there. They're not really, they're more like year one tables on there a bit, even a bit high, but we've truck, we've spent. So I don't know how much money I've spent this year on buying coverings for the tables and Still haven't found the perfect one because they all seem to rip and yeah, so we've tried.
Speaker 2Yeah, like wood, I've tried. Fablon type stuff and that just gets ripped off. Gets ripped and picked.
Speaker 1So I think you said you're gonna try painting them.
Speaker 2next area I did, I thought I might try spray, spray painting, because the tops are plastic and then wood, yeah, so yeah, it's working with what you have.
Speaker 1trial and error, and actually it doesn't matter it's definitely not gonna make a massive difference to the children and to what they learn.
Speaker 2Color your table is. Whatever goes on these tables is gonna happen, regardless if it looks like wood or if it's bread. So, yeah, have that in mind, that less is more. And yeah, don't stress yourself, don't stress.
Speaker 1Definitely. So what else can we do? Well, we can. We can use like. I've used pallets in the past a lot and got a couple of new pallets on the go. They're very good, they're very what's the word? You can use them for lots of different things first time the word does going for. Yeah, they're very versatile and already sort of said about the puppet theater, like just reusing things that you've got. I see you've been saving your cans, sarah.
Speaker 2So my hoarding obsession is cans and jars. I have to hide them from my husband because he gets really cross, because he can't understand why I would do that. But it's about utilising free resources, saving the cans and the jars for pencil pots and paint jars. I put plants in them. I put all sorts of resources in, like gems and pine cones.
Speaker 1How do you make sure they're safe for the tins? I make sure.
Speaker 2I have a can opener, like an old fashioned can opener. It's like the cheapest one you can buy, like metal, and what it does is when it opens it it pushes the sides down rather than just opening them. I don't think they make them like that anymore. I think they mainly do make them where they push the side down, as it goes, but they tend to be the old fashioned mechanical ones that are made of just purely metal, but yeah, have a check and see what your can opener does.
Speaker 2Do not go for the ring pulled cans because you'll never get that sharp edge off. So always go for your cheap tins that's my thing and then just soak them and then the label comes off and then you've got three.
Speaker 1And then they're in keeping with the natural look, aren't they? Because they're metal, they're neutral.
Speaker 3I mean, and glass jars, check your risk assessment and your SLT if they're happy for you to have those and obviously just depending on what like what cohort and stuff with the glass jars, because we've had glass jars for a few years and they've worked beautifully. I mean, some children love having a glass jar when they're painting. They just love it, they feel really responsible and like what sometimes they see on older films where the children have got a glass jar out and they love that, whereas then some years we've had that hasn't worked as well.
Utilizing Free and Cheap Resources
Speaker 2No, no. So again, it's not knowing your children and having risk assessments in place. But yeah, it's utilising what you can, what you can find and what's free and save, and I've saved all sorts of packaging. I've been giving gifts and I've been thinking oh sod the gift. I love the box, yes.
Speaker 3The box is Love the basket. Yeah, love the basket. I always say that If someone gives me like, a present with a basket, can I keep the basket. Yeah, like, yes, really, you can keep the basket.
Speaker 1Thanks. You can get like the cheaper plastic baskets, can't you that have the wicker effect. So if you are going for that and you can't quite stretch, you can even impound land at the moment. Yeah, okay, I have to get a little rummage, yeah, but the 99p store was open.
Speaker 3That was my life, wasn't it? Oh no.
Speaker 1Nothing impound. Land costs a pound anymore does it?
Speaker 3No, it doesn't, no, I don't know, just sad it is sad Anyway.
Speaker 1So you've kind of got all your furniture and you've got all your places. You're going to be laid like. We talked about this a little bit in our last episode. Or did we talk about it in our last episode? Yeah, we didn't. We're about labelling with a picture and a number for tidying up and the children knowing where things are going to go. You can also use shadowing, where you make an outline of what the object is and you place that flat on the shelf so that the children know exactly where it goes. That works really well for things like Just looking at plastic or if you're laminated.
Speaker 1Yeah, or even just it might as well see your profusion, that's always out.
Speaker 1Things like your block play yeah, your blocks, and that's good mathematical understanding and some spatial reasoning there, and that was something that again, talking about this less is more I put that out last year in the reception and at first I had lots and lots of blocks stacked on top of each other and just assumed in my mind that the children would know. It's very clear to me where they would go, and they really struggled with putting them away. So what I had to do was remove. So there was just one block and then once a few of the children some of them never mastered that. Actually it was quite a high level skill. We probably didn't quite have enough space for what we actually needed, but some of the children became really good at it. They were even better than some adults that came in and tied it up. It was quite therapeutic actually putting them all back in the right place, but, yeah, that's a good way of showing the children exactly where things go.
Speaker 2And then creating zones. So you kind of want your Whether you have You've got a setting where there's just one, one cohort, or whether you've got three, it's creating zones. So all of your messy activities like your painting, your play-doh, your junk modelling, all sort of together, because that's kind of like an art studio, like a partelier, you'd want that to be all together. So all of those resources are all kept in that area and children, if they want to make something, they know that they can go to that area. Things that may lend themselves to each other, like blocks and small worlds?
Speaker 1Yeah, work fantastic together.
Speaker 2Lots of different areas incorporated into that, from maths to using your imagination, being creative, all sorts. Having your snack area away from the messy area and away from toilets as well yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1I did have my snack area right next to my toilet to begin with.
Speaker 2That was true to a space issue. I think it was.
Speaker 1I was in the smallest classroom but luckily in my nursery classroom it's lovely and spacious in there. It's got its own separate kitchen. It is really lovely, so I don't have that problem anymore. But yeah, I did move it eventually after sort of sympathising with the children Not that they seemed to mind, but as their toilet habits got wilder through the year and there there was a lot of children undressing and clogging up the sinks with paper towels and things. So, yeah, we moved it.
Speaker 2I moved it away, but yeah, and having your sand and water together.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Messy play maybe as well, depends, and obviously you have to think about your space Like we'd love to have all these areas and sometimes there's physically not the space to do that. Whether you work as units what you do, or whether you're three separate entities.
Speaker 1Whether you have things like on wheels that are portable, that you can just wheel out. We had sewing with gold wheels.
Speaker 3That works really well.
Speaker 2The cooking area was on wheels at one point.
Speaker 3That was just covered with everything that you needed and you just push it through to whatever classroom is doing the cooking that day. That works amazing.
Speaker 2I mean because I had your old classroom stuff that was really tiny. All my provision was on wheels.
Speaker 3Remember that.
Speaker 2It'd be a bit like a pack and play. We used to push everything out so everyone could sit down on the carpet. Yes, it was.
Speaker 3And then I used to push everything back in again on wheels, rolled the carpet up and then it all came out on wheels.
Speaker 2Exactly, and we used to do that like twice a day and I made my support site age and put everything on wheels, but it worked it did work Especially for that classroom. It did.
Speaker 1So, I should have done that.
Speaker 2So it's again it's just using what you have and knowing what your children and using the space. Some older classrooms are very strangely sized, yeah, and shaped.
Speaker 3We've got the Goldilocks, haven't we here? We've got small one, medium one, oh yeah.
Speaker 2We have got the Goldilocks We've got the Goldilocks we have Okay. So now we're going to go on to talking about our staff voice, which is down to my expert over here.
Speaker 1Have we got a little button? Are we going to do a little button for that?
Speaker 2We will, oh look so ways of finding really cheap or free resources. So like I was talking about with the cans and the jars yeah, my expert here, keely.
Speaker 3I love a bargain. She is my bargain. I am a bargain hunter. I am a bargain hunter. She does it like David Dickerson.
Speaker 2I do not like David.
Speaker 3Dickerson yeah Well, we've been to a few car beats. Do you love a car beat? But don't go with like you know you're worth more than that. Don't don't go for just like the first prize so like, if do you have, go, do ask them and tell them and say you're working in school, this is my own money and and they normally are really lovely.
Speaker 2The crack of door and my husband, yes, at this car boot sale and they were offering things like two pound. I was like jumping at the chance to pay for that. She was like she went, she got it?
Speaker 3yeah, absolutely, sometimes you have to be a bit firm. Other times just use your sweetness Each.
Speaker 2We did get some real bargains that day. It's not like going to a shop, you don't know, and you do have to think on your feet. When you go to Charity shops, yeah, you have to sort of go with an open mind. Yeah, you do.
Speaker 3We got that big. Do you know that big metal super pot? It's like a camping one. You know the really old-fashioned, like metal Jam making job, it jam making pan. It was massive and it still goes today. And it's now like outside and it's hooked up and makes a campfire and the children are under there all the time Playing and putting sticks in and corns in and making their soups, and so how?
Speaker 1much was that thing.
Speaker 3I think it was about three pounds.
Speaker 2I think it was about three pounds.
Speaker 3So not, it's not, it is Thinking about what you're gonna like. Don't just go there, oh yeah, we'll get that, we get it. Think about what you're gonna use it for. To a point we did have that idea of that. We thought oh yeah, you can use that the resource many.
Speaker 2Yeah ways than it's an open-ended resource. If it's very close, like it is a wooden garage that can be used as a wooden garage. To think really carefully about the resources that you're buying. Are they Open the ended enough, yeah, and are they gonna get a lot of use out of it?
Speaker 3Yeah, and we did get quite a lot of things from From there for like our loose parts. So we've got teaspoons and things like that for loose parts as well. So that's really good, yeah, yeah and like jewelry and things though you know it's called costume jewellery but you only pay, say, a pound for like five necklaces. You know they are they are gonna get broken at some point. So paying a pound is quite enough for five.
Speaker 1See, I'm not really a carbuter because I find the whole thing sets sends me into like an anxious spiral at the thought of having to. So I'm just like take my money so I prefer like the Facebook marketplace. Yeah, we're getting freebies. I've got loads of free tires. Yeah, I'm gonna just phone up your garage. They'll give you, like old tires, although I do have to hide things like that from my husband Because he goes mad because I stole them in the garage and then I can never like do this, they never get around.
Speaker 3He goes get them in, getting them in the car and then out.
Speaker 1Well, you know, I was driving around at one point with a, with a Cable top, what they call the cable, real big cable, in the boot of my car and he didn't know about it. And then another time I had to go to pick up a pallet from a friend and I was like, can you not tell my husband please? And they were like why?
Speaker 2why are we gonna keep this a secret?
Speaker 1I was like because I'm just gonna keep it my car for a few days until I could drop it into school, and I just don't want him to know. And he never found out about the pallet until he listened to this podcast.
Speaker 3Free cycles another really great place to go. It is what it says. It is free cycle, so it's just people getting rid of things and they are free and they there are Facebook pages.
Speaker 2I've signed up to couple but they have a free.
Speaker 3Yeah, and like around where you are. Yeah, and just don't.
Speaker 2Just be really thoughtful about taking on.
Speaker 1Ready for our, for our mindful moment. So this week for our mindful moment, we've got a little mantra which I just think is is absolutely Spot on for what we've been talking about this week. So the mantra is Good enough is perfect, and that just kind of sums up, really, what we were, what we've been talking about today, doesn't it? Because, you know, sometimes it might not be Just right it, but if it's good enough, that is perfect, because that is enough. Like that's all we can do is what we can do At the time, and if you've got the children's in your mind, you've got the the children in mind, then that's that's.
Speaker 3That's good enough. You, that's what you're thinking about that's perfect. Yeah, they're you. Yeah, exactly the whole reason, isn't it? And if they're, they're happy and they get what they need, and they get what they need to do to learn, then then that is perfect.
Speaker 1Absolutely so. It's just a reminder to everyone to just remember that it doesn't have to be instant perfect, but good enough is perfect.
Speaker 2And please, please, check us out on Instagram and tick talk and follow up. Just reach over and click follow wherever you're listening or whatever. Yeah, I'll call it podcast platform that you're on, just click follow. That would be amazing, I would make our days. But thank you very much for listening to another.
Speaker 1Yeah, thank you and we will see you soon. Bye, Bye.
