It has been 4 weeks since childcare service director held a performance meeting withEarly Childhood Educator Sally. During this time sally has attended another childcare service, Growing Minds Early Childhood Centre and completed other training as agreed in her performance improvement plan. (see Performance Improvement plan below)

Performance Improvement Plan
Sally Turner	Position:	Early Childhood Educator
20.10.23
Rachel Egan
Summary of Issue/s: concerns regarding the quality of Sally's documentation of observations, examples include Use of mixed tenses, which confuse the clarity of observation recording Observations lack explicit detail on child development and learning approach. Lack of direct dialogue quotes and a blending of past events with observations, making observations hard to follow and objective
How have these issues been addressed with the employee prior to a performance meeting? Include informal/incidental conversations and formal meetings/documentation. As per Sally's personal file there are number of informal notes that indicate the issue of observation documentation has been discussed on a number of occasions. Meeting held with Sally and room leader Kylie on 29.9.23 to discuss a confrontation that had occurred due to issues with Sally's observation documentation.
Provide a summary of the meeting that was undertaken that informs this plan:
20.10.23	Location	Directors' Office	Time	9am
Who attended the meeting?	Staff member Sally Turner Service Director Rachel Egan Please not Sally declined the offer to bring a support person (as offered in meeting request email 15.10.23 )
Summary of discussion: Observations should be recorded in the past tense, after the event has taken place. It was discussed with Sally that her observation documentation switched between tenses, which can affect the clarity and accuracy of the observation. Observations should contain explicit detail about the child's developmental progress and learning methods. It was discussed with Sally that her current observation lacked specific details about Timmy's actions and interactions. Additionally, objective descriptions are essential to ensure a fair and accurate representation of the event. It was discussed with Sally when there is a dialogue between children or between a child and an educator such as with Timmy in the block corner , it's important to include actual quotes. This adds depth to the observation and allows for better understanding of the observation. Observations should remain focused on the event observed. It was discussed with Sally in the observation with Timmy information about past events was included , making it challenging to discern the details of the current experience. It was discussed with Sally the potential implications if her performance didn't improve as expected, such as affecting her professional growth within the service. It was explained to sally that the service was invested in her development and confident of her ability to improve and why improvement was important Clear goals for Sally were established using a collaborative approach Examples of internal and external assistance available were offered to Sally Progress dates were determined Sally was thanked for her willingness to improve her observation documentation skills

1. sally has provided the director with new sample observation to review and there are clear signs of improvement: (see below observation- notes for director will assist the most)

Child's name: Timmy Age of child: 3 years and 6 months	Date: Time: 11.10am
Observer: Sally	Context/Setting: Block corner
Timmy was sitting in the block corner with Anthony and Maurice. They were building a tall tower. They each took turns placing the blocks on top. Timmy held the small block between his thumb and forefinger and carefully placed it on the tower that was now at his eye level. The tower was wobbly but he managed not to knock it over. The talked with each other back and forth throughout the building process.

Notes for the Director

Sally's approach is much improved and now only has some minor improvement needed.

• The anecdotal observation is recorded in past tense written after the event. It is clearer and now follows a logical sequence and focuses on the event being observed.
• The anecdotal observation contains more explicit detail of development and the child's approach to learning.
• The anecdotal observation is now objective and does not include personal opinion
• The anecdotal observation should include actual quotes when there is a dialogue between child and child, child and educator. Sally still needs to improve in this area.

follow-up meeting:

What statements/dialogue can the director use when conducting follow-up performance meeting with Sally that

1. Effectively opens the meeting.
2. Identifies what Sally has done well
3. Indicates where there is still room for improvement
4. Provides coaching strategies through demonstration or description of what improved practice would look like to improve the work outcome
5. Identify additional support and refer Sally to where she can go for this additional support
6. Discuss the goal for the next review
7. Decide when you will meet with Sally again to review
8. Effectively close the meeting