Role of the coach

The role of the coach is what we have been working on this year. I feel I have a better understanding of this through the research, courses and teacher discussions we have had. I like the template that Maire introduced that we fill in when we are the coach. We observe the children and write down the urges we see in the Learning Through Play room. This then helps us decide what activities we will put out in our planning the next week. We need to make time to look at all the coaches observations each week to inform our planning and make sure we are seeing all the children included in the notes. I like the Learning Through Play spreadsheet for planning. It is great how we are free to choose any activity we want. The resources sometimes makes me hesitant, but we have brought this up and discussed in team meetings about a Learning Through Play budget (also making use of the natural resources and asking our community). Lately the rotation urge is the biggest at the moment. The children are making bey blades out of mobilo and spinning them on the lino and tables. I will introduce paper spinners as a rotation activity and think about more activities around this urge. The coach also observes in the challenge room. I like the planning spreadsheet we have in place for the Challenge room. The activities are linked to the curriculum achievement objectives. The children can explore activities in the Learning Through Play room and then be challenged with an activity around those objects/materials etc in this room (deeper understanding/critically thinking). I think we have to be careful that the activities we choose lend themselves to be ticked off on the literacy/maths progressions. We have learnt through the Longworth course when to intervene in the play and when to observe which has been very helpful. The coach also oversees the follow up room making sure the children are on task completing their activities. The language the coach uses is very important, it needs to lift the play (high order play), involve open ended questioning, ignite and challenge the play. The coach needs to model play and then retreat when the children are happily involved. The coach needs to use just in time teaching when the children need their play to be lifted, knowing what they need to be exposed to next so they can develop furthur (scaffoldding). Soft skills/key competencies/conflict resolution need to be taught and modelled in this environment as well. The coach has a very important role which we are continuing to define.