Assessment &

Planning Cycle
The Webinar

Proudly Presented by Bugs and Bare Feet

Early Childhood Consulting
Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of

country throughout Australia and recognise
their continuing connection to land, waters
and culture.

We pay our respects to their Elders past,

present and emerging.
Part
Why Plan?
One
Myths we Believe

The Actual Expectations Regarding Planning

Collaborating with Families

Why Plan?
• It’s a requirement
• Documentation supports the provision of quality children’s
education and care by:
- deepening the shared understanding of each child
- identifying and analysing learning and learning progress
- informing the educational program, and
- making learning visible and able to be shared with others.
• It also helps educators and educational leaders to reflect on their
pedagogy and practices.

Planning cycle – We Hear You (acecqa.gov.au)

Myths we Believe
• Educators must complete one planning cycle per month
per child…
• There is perfect template or app that makes documenting
easier…
• Every observation must be linked to an outcome or
theorist…
• Planning needs to be linked to the principles and practices
• Learning Stories are the only way to document…

What other myths have you believed?

From the Regulations…
Regulations 73-76
- An approved learning framework must be
used for planning and assessing learning.
- Children’s development, interests, experiences, participation and
progress must be assessed against the outcomes.
- Documentation must be available to and displayed for families.
- Documentation must be understood by families and educators.
- Families can request information about their child’s progress at any
time.
National Quality Standard

Quality Area 1: Educational Program and Practice

Element 1.3.1: Assessment and Planning Cycle

Each child’s learning and development is assessed or
evaluated as part of an ongoing cycle of observation,
analysing learning, documentation, planning,
implementation and reflection.
Collaborating with Families
We don’t need to plan FOR families.

Services tend to inform families about a child's learning at THE END of a

planning cycle.

True collaboration means we are in communication and discussion with the

family throughout the entire planning cycle.
Families do need to have access to their child’s planning
AND need to understand it.
Who are you planning for?

Are you meeting the requirements?

Are you doing too much documenting?

Are you doing too much for families?

Part
Two Planning Cycle Steps

Step One and Two

Rich, Meaningful and Child Focussed

The Planning Cycle
Step 1

Step 5

Step 2

Step 4
Step 3
Planning
Step 1 Step 2
Cycle
Steps….
A template is
not essential, an
‘app’ is not
essential, but
may help you
visualise and Step 5 Step 3
keep track of
the cycle. Step 4
Step 1 Information from the family
Observations by educators
Collect Information - Artwork
Get to know the Conversations and Interactions
child Photos / videos / voice recordings
Summative Assessments
Developmental checklists
Information from other professionals

• Remember to focus on rich and meaningful

information
 Rich and
Meaningful
Information

‘Educators use a variety of strategies to collect, document, organise, synthesise

and interpret the information that they gather to assess children’s learning. They
search for appropriate ways to collect rich and meaningful information that
depicts children’s learning in context, describes their progress and identifies their
strengths, skills and understanding.’
(EYLF, DEEWR, page 17)
Step 1:
What am I looking for?
Children learn through play….
What learning might be taking place here?
How might the children be feeling?
 Analyse: examine in order to interpret and/or explain
Step 2
What learning is taking place?
Analyse the learning What outcomes are being developed? (Use EYLF/MTOP
from Information for this)
Collected
What does the information tell me about the child?
What can the child do? How does the child learn?

What more do I need to know about the child?

Can I relate the learning to any theories?

• How are you getting to know each child?
What evidence are you ‘gathering?
• Are you analysing the information using the
approved learning frameworks?
 Part
Three Step 3 Planning

Step 4 Implementing

Step 5 Evaluating
 What will benefit the child? (routines, goals,
Step 3 experiences, life skills, etc)

Plan What will support further learning and

development?

Seek the child’s and family’s ideas too.

Use the child’s interests to support learning.

Ensure appropriate resources are available.

Step 4 Interact with the child with warmth and
responsiveness
Implement the
Scaffold learning through curiosity, open ended
Plan questioning, listening, collaborating etc

Observe new learning and skills being developed

or spontaneous play.

(Ensure you date the plan)

 Did the plan meet the goal?
Step 5
Did the plan support and benefit the child’s
Reflect & learning?
Evaluate
Did any unexpected learning or skills develop?

NOTE: This is not critical reflection, this is a

reflection/evaluation of the program
What next?
Share the learning with the family.
Continue the learning or begin a new cycle
A Cycle
Example
• Are you completing a cycle regularly for each child?
• Is the planning meaningful to the child?
• Are you hurrying through cycles to meet unrealistic
expectations?
Part
Four Planning for Groups
Group Planning Cycles…
Step 1:
- Information from individual children
Step 5: - Group Goals
Did the plan meet all the - Working towards learning outcomes
learning goals?
Do we need to continue
the plan?
Step 2:
Make changes?
Use the learning outcomes
from the frameworks

Step 4:
Don’t be in a rush…. The
group plan can be Step 3:
implemented over a week, The plan is informed from
or fortnight, month etc….. knowledge of individuals
Children need time to play, and the group as a whole
learn and develop.
Part
Five Summative Assessment
 Summative
Assessment
From the Regs:
Children’s development, interests, experiences,
participation and progress must be assessed
against the outcomes.

- A summary is an easy way to meet this

regulation
- A summary helps you to identify any ‘gaps’ in
learning (outcomes)
A Radical Idea….. Step 1:
Simplify your Spend 4-6 weeks gathering
documenting…. info about each child
Step 5:
- Spend more time on Evaluate/Reflect
each step, go deep Continue if needed.
Start new cycle if needed.
- Get to know the child
for ‘longer’ then
summarise learning
and development Step 2 & 3:
Spend 1-2 weeks
analysing info
(using a
Step 4: summative
Spend as long as required to assessment) and
implement a quality plan for each planning for each
child. child
In Summary
Know the child. Know the family.
Tell their story.
Focus on learning, development
and wellbeing.
Every child has strengths and
positives, use them in your
planning.
Find your own documenting style
(but ensure you follow the
planning cycle!)
For Further Reflection…

• What does the planning cycle look like for each child?

• How does your documentation benefit the child?

• What is meaningful and significant?

• What new insights do I have about the child?

• How are you summarizing learning for each child?

Thank You

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