24 Logging Child’s Progress, Essentials, Types, Aim And Purpose Of Records, Reports In Preschool

N. Dhanya

Documented plans, records of children’s assessments and evaluations are effective ways to support and extend children’s thinking, learning and development. What should be the aim of the teacher or early childhood practitioner? Yes, the ultimate aim of a true practitioner is to find the children’s progress and development. It is the best reward that makes a practitioner satisfied. Now let’s see, how it is done. Initially, Baseline assessment should be conducted which can cover some of the basic skills like speaking and listening, reading and writing, mathematics, personal and social development. Teachers can use the baseline assessment data to plan their teaching method in accordance with the child’s needs. As time passes, it would be possible for the schools to assess children’s progress against this baseline. What are the tools used? Observation and assessment are the important tools of watching and learning so as to establish an achieved progress and to explore the future. Individual observation of a child or group observation of children can be done, in order to find the development or progress in one or more areas. Checklists can be represented pictorially so that the children can also record their own progress. For this, the young children can use progress books, can present evidence of their work in portfolios, can participate in interviews and can do self- completion of the charts. Checklists would indicate the children who need support. Based on the checklist details, plans can be devised and implemented to help the children to develop in particular skills. The checklists can be updated regularly during an ongoing monitoring process. Therefore a child’s profile becomes a detailed register of past and present progress; most importantly gives indications about future progress in development. It also represents the strategies that have been implemented.

All of you would have seen and heard about records, reports and registers in administrative set ups. These are seen in preschools too… Do you think they are important? What might be their significance? Now let’s learn about the essentials of Records and Reports in a Preschool

It is essential to maintain records and reports in a preschool, since preschool serves as a guide to the child’s growth and development. Records and reports are to be properly maintained because it will be of great help to plan the programme and guides the children. A best, effective programme should be based on the children’s needs, wishes and their abilities. The experience the children have in a preschool should be useful, enthusiastic and promote development in various realms. Records and reports would make the teacher realize the school readiness of the children. Records and reports of a particular child, when taken to the primary school along with the child and handed over to the teacher would help the teacher to know the child’s physical, emotional, social and intellectual development and his deficiencies as well.

Records of Children

Each child comes to a school from various circumstances. The changes that children undergo at this stage can greatly influence their future life. The primary school helps in the child’s growth and development. Preschool plays a serious role in the physical, mental, emotional and social development of the children. Therefore it is very important to maintain records and reports in a pre-primary school and this will help in planning programmes and can guide the children. A programme becomes virtuous when it is planned according to the needs, wants and capabilities of the children. The pre-primary education should facilitate the child’s development in various aspects. The experience the children have in a pre-primary school should be meaningful, purposeful and enthusiastic. From the records and reports, the teacher can evaluate how far the children are ready to be in a school atmosphere. This would help the teacher to know the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional, social development as well as his weaknesses.

Records are valuable for various things like in guiding the behaviour and planning the education of the individual child. It helps to evaluate programmes, methods, and outcomes based on the principles of the nursery school. This further enables the staff to improve the techniques. Records and reports keep the parents aware of their child’s behaviour and progress in education at the school. Records are necessary for helping the doctor and other specialists in their understanding about the child. It would provide child’s details to the successive teachers who would teach him in the future classes. Evaluative records can serve as devices for teaching students who are preparing themselves for work in nursery schools.

The maintenance of records at pre – primary school is important as study material for the researches on child growth. However in India, the data on the pattern of child development is not maintained well. The records are not to be simply stored. Each pre-school teacher should realize that the purpose of keeping the records is to guide the child. Systematic recording can detect a child’s deficiencies and its causes, so that appropriate referral services or therapeutic treatment can be provided at the earliest. In this regard, proper maintenance of the records of children are of great value to the researchers. Therefore it is necessary to maintain records and reports in pre-primary schools. The following are the important records and registers to be maintained in the schools:

• Attendance register
• Admission register
• School lunch record
• Record of income and expenditure
• Stock register
• Visitor’s record
• Parent education programme record
• Daily diary
• Monthly report
• Record of programme planning
• Health report
• Cumulative record
• Record of early planning (a) Records of children and  (b) Maintenance and=

   administrative record of preschool

Let’s take a glance at some of the records in detail:

Health record

The health record gives an awareness of the gradual development of each child both to the parents as well as to the teacher. Every month, the preschool teacher should note down the serial number, name of the children, age, month, weight and height in the health record. The measurement should be taken once in a month, at the same hour of the day under the same conditions of clothing and eating time. The monthly systematic measurements are to be noted carefully because it can act as a simple index of the child’s nutritional status. These records can be useful for both parents and teachers. Medical checkup results and recommendations can also be entered in the health record. “Health is wealth”. Good health and development ensure energetic, skillful involvement in the pre- school activities by the child. Health record can indicate the child’s interest, capability and development in those activities. This record, when it is handed over to the next class is easy to guide the child in the right direction.

Cumulative record

All the collected data about a child are maintained in the form of cumulative record. The cumulative record contains details of personal data, prenatal history and birth history, developmental history from birth, disease and vaccination. It also contains information on the home background, habits and interests of the child, health and general remarks of the teacher. The child’s interest in various activities and involvement in work should be clearly noted by the teacher. It can help to guide the child to a job oriented educational course for his future.

Moving on the records of administration, the first one is the Attendance register

An attendance register is to be strictly maintained. The teacher should write the names of the children who attend the school in the attendance register serially. The names of boys and girls may be differentiated using two different colours. The attendance should be recorded everyday in the morning and in the evening. This helps to note the number of days the child attends school in a month. Remedial steps shall be taken based on the reasons for absenteeism and the impact of the school is assessed in relation to attendance.

Admission report

Admission report contains the names of the children, name of the parents, or guardian their occupation, income, caste, religion, address, child’s date of birth, native place and date of admission. The names of newly admitted children should be written continually after the name of discontinued children without committing them.

Record of admission forms

The parents are given an admission form when they make their first contact with the school. The parents will have to give information regarding the name, address, age and sex of the child, the father’s occupation and economic status of the family. Along with this, they should give information regarding the immunization record of the child. The parents are advised to give all the necessary vaccinations to the child before the child is sent to school. The date of registration and number on the waiting list at the time of registration is recorded on one corner of the admission form. At the time of admission, the date and roll number are also entered. Similarly, at the time of withdrawal the date, age and reasons for withdrawal are also recorded.

Record of general information of the child

The general information is provided by the parents after the child is admitted to the school. Detailed information about the parents or guardian of the child (their age, educational qualifications, occupation, income etc) is to be kept. It will also include details about their siblings, type of family, and information about relatives staying at home, facilities at home, languages used at home, order of birth of the child; and whether or not both the parents are alive and live together.

Record of Income and Expenditure

This record includes details regarding income and expenditure, the sources of income and the expenditure of the school. This will help them to make both ends meet, successfully.

School Lunch Record

A school lunch record is to be maintained to list down the menu daily and the expenditure for it. This would ensure if the children enjoy a balanced diet or not and also helps to find out the expenditure for each meal and to accredit charges in the lunch scheme, if required.

Stock register

A Stock register should be maintained for the items like furniture, equipment, books etc. The name, number of articles and the value of them, whether the article is a donation or bought by the school, particulars about condemned goods, stock, signature of the secretary and other particulars should be recorded in the stock register. All the preschool teachers should realize the need for records and reports in a preschool and develop their skill inmaintaining them. Correct maintenance and recording of the details about the stock can help to check the requirements for the present and future. All the articles and other items like accessories must be marked in an inventory register under proper headings.

  Visitors Record

Officers or guests might often visit the school. So a visitor’s record can be given to them to record their opinion about the school, the performance of the children and to give their suggestions.

Parent Education Programme Record

A weekly or monthly meeting may be conducted with the parents under the leadership of pre-primary school teacher to discuss on some subjects or issues regarding the children. For example, topics like nutritious diet for children, child care, problems found among pre-primary school children and solution may be discussed during the meeting. All the details of such meetings should be recorded in parent education programme record.

Record of house visits

A record of home visits should include date of visit, purpose, information elicited, response of the parents and observations made. The teacher can use an interview schedule, when she undertakes home visits. The teacher holds informal talks with the parents, notices the home set up, facilities that the child enjoys, etc. The teacher collects detailed information about the habits of the child- his/her history such as record of illnesses, mannerisms, toilet habits, sleeping habits, eating habits, interaction with the family. Through the interaction with the parents, the teacher finds out the type of disciplinary methods that the child is exposed to. All these details will help the teacher to understand the behaviour of the child. The background information can provide a whole picture of the child and his family. On the next visits, the teacher records only the changes (if any), in the different areas.

Record of teacher’s estimate on the individual child

The child’s development in the different aspects like – emotional, personal, social, language and intellectual is evaluated by the teacher. The teacher finds out the child’s interests, his problems and the factors that hinder the child’s development. When different teacher evaluates a child, it will help promoting an analytical attitude on the part of the teacher with regard to her estimate of a child’s behaviour. Working with each child can help the teacher to modify her teaching techniques according to the child’s need. Using the ratings on behaviour and development, the teacher can understand, assess, and help the child in his development or can give specific attention.

Daily Diary

The daily routine; i.e. the programme and duties that they have during the whole day in the pre-primary school should be recorded in the daily diary. Particulars like date, starting of school, attendance, prayer, free conversation, planned activity, outdoor play, song, indoor play, and visit of guest should be clearly noted in the diary regularly.

Monthly Report

Monthly report should contain particulars like the number on roll both of boys and girls at the beginning and at the end of the month, working dates, particulars about the classes taken, health check up and other activities of the entire month.

Yearly Planning Report

This report contains extra- curricular activities and other activities for the whole year. Particulars like total number of working days, holidays, and activities for each month should find a separate place in this report.

Record of parents meeting and parent participation in the school

This record is to determine participation of the parents in the school programmes. This record is an evidence for parents’ interest and awareness about the preschool programmes. This record shows the various activities in which parents participate at the school, the nature of their participation and frequency of participation. The report should contain details about the discussions, suggestions, the final decisions that have been made (if any) by both the parents and teachers.

Receipt forms

Receipt forms enable easy and accurate book keeping. A receipt should be issued to the parents upon the fee payment. The parents will be given the original receipt and a duplicate carbon copy is kept by the school. All the receipts should be numbered, is kept in bound books and are made out in duplicate. Every receipt can be checked by the auditor at any time.

Record of Group Experiences

A record of group experiences of the children should be kept by the teacher, so that it can be used to make group experience plans in the upcoming years. It also helps the teacher to rate the overall progress of the group. This record can help the successive teacher in the kindergarten or in the first grade to plan group activities for the children. Records facilitate the total evaluation process. A teacher puts knowledge into practice, checks over the records and assesses them. Here, she is working and re-evaluating her work. The individual and group records are of great importance because, these records helps the teacher to find out the level of progress made by the children. Therefore a teacher can achieve an in depth knowledge on how she can serve a child in his development. The teacher also achieves a personal and professional progress by helping the children.

Inspection Report or Supervisor’s Remarks

The teachers shall be guided for the betterment of the school by the supervisors and inspectors who visit the pre-primary school. Automatically these advices and suggestions given by the supervisors and inspectors would help the teachers to improve and excel in their duties.

Conclusion

Records play a key role in keeping abreast with the developments in the functioning of the school and maintain a report of the past years for future references. A pre-primary school teacher should be very observant and should record the various developments in the child based on her observations. This can give a clear picture on the child’s development, his interests and capabilities. Based on the development shown by the child he may be promoted to the next class. Proper education can also be provided to the children based on their progress in development, his needs and desires. Maintenance of records and reports in a pre-primary school requires skill. The pre-primary teachers should know the importance of records and reports in a pre-primary school and should practice to develop the skill in maintaining them.