ABSTRACT
By the end of December, most children in the 2–3 room will have had two cycles when they were a focus child. For children who are already 3, then they would just have had one completed cycle in this autumn term (from September to December). It is a constant juggle to keep enough adults in the setting, and the extra challenge comes about because the legal ratios change when a child turns 3, and the funding changes too. For the children aged 2, the ratios in England at this time are 1–4, but as soon as they turn 3, it drops to 1–8. This is one reason why settings have ended up reducing the frequency at which a child is a focus child. For children over 3, it is once per term (or roughly 10% of the group). For children under 3, it is once per half-term (or roughly 20% of the group). With fewer staff, it is more important that they are spending their time interacting with children rather than recording interactions. However, it is also the case that children under 3 are developing at the most rapid pace that will ever happen 179in their lifetime. The progress that they make in the space of a month can be dramatic. The team at the preschool therefore recognise that it is valuable to get more frequent ‘snapshots’ of the children at this age, and therefore the children aged under 3 are focus children once per half-term. The team at Staple Hill decided to do the second cycle of focus children with the 2-year-olds, but they did not meet with the parents again. Rather, they sent the focus sheet home and had more informal discussions with the parents about these.
