Blogs in our school began in upper KS2 and many class blogs thrive with this age group. The children are digital natives, have regular ICT sessions and enjoy the buzz that a global audience brings.
Nevertheless, since our school rolled out blogs to the whole school, the Foundation Stage blog has been the one to watch to judge how 'low you can go' with blogs.
In fact, in our school, the Foundation Stage have led the way in developing parental involvement, which I wrote about in my last post.
Nevertheless, since our school rolled out blogs to the whole school, the Foundation Stage blog has been the one to watch to judge how 'low you can go' with blogs.
In fact, in our school, the Foundation Stage have led the way in developing parental involvement, which I wrote about in my last post.
From looking at our FS blog, here are some of the great uses of a Foundation Stage blog!
1. Sharing Successes
Foundation Stage are brilliant at fostering links with parents. This natural link between school and parents begins with handing the children over every morning, but can be fostered by sharing sessions where parents find out about the work of the Foundation Stage unit. A class blog is the natural extension of this, because at this age parents are arguably most actively involved in their child's development.
2. Parental involvement in the blog
Besides the reader stats for a blog, 1 measure of involvement is the number of comments.
As mentioned previously, our FS team set 'homework' for parents to look at the blogs with their children, encouraging comments where possible.
Here are some examples of parental involvement (Comments by parents, comments by children), which demonstrate the strengthening of home-school links.
3. Encourages a whole school ethos
If staff and children from other year groups leave comments on FS blogs (as they do), this emphasises the positive whole school ethos and boost to self-esteem for both commenter and the children who receive the comments. Here is just one example
4. Adding useful weblinks
If you use websites which you want children to access at home and at school (eg Bugclub, Mathletics, Purple Mash), the icons and links to the sites can be added to a blog, allowing important websites to be shared in the same place, whilst also serving as a visual reminder to both children and adults of how to support learning away from school.
5. Other Uses
If children have regular access to iPads, displaying their digital work also becomes a possibility!
If you see examples of other uses of Foundation Stage blogs, please share and I can amend this post!
I think the next blog post will focus on developing blogs in Key Stage 1.
1. Sharing Successes
Foundation Stage are brilliant at fostering links with parents. This natural link between school and parents begins with handing the children over every morning, but can be fostered by sharing sessions where parents find out about the work of the Foundation Stage unit. A class blog is the natural extension of this, because at this age parents are arguably most actively involved in their child's development.
2. Parental involvement in the blog
Besides the reader stats for a blog, 1 measure of involvement is the number of comments.
As mentioned previously, our FS team set 'homework' for parents to look at the blogs with their children, encouraging comments where possible.
Here are some examples of parental involvement (Comments by parents, comments by children), which demonstrate the strengthening of home-school links.
3. Encourages a whole school ethos
If staff and children from other year groups leave comments on FS blogs (as they do), this emphasises the positive whole school ethos and boost to self-esteem for both commenter and the children who receive the comments. Here is just one example
4. Adding useful weblinks
If you use websites which you want children to access at home and at school (eg Bugclub, Mathletics, Purple Mash), the icons and links to the sites can be added to a blog, allowing important websites to be shared in the same place, whilst also serving as a visual reminder to both children and adults of how to support learning away from school.
5. Other Uses
If children have regular access to iPads, displaying their digital work also becomes a possibility!
If you see examples of other uses of Foundation Stage blogs, please share and I can amend this post!
I think the next blog post will focus on developing blogs in Key Stage 1.
RSS Feed
