mindingmum
11-09-2014, 11:13 AM
Hi, I have just returned to childminding after a 2 year break. I used to just look after afterschoolers some of whom were EYFS. However I am now just minding one child of a friend who is 1. My brain is rubbish and I am trying to make sure that I am doing everything right! I have not had an inspection since 2010 so guess I will be inspected soon!
I have contracts, permission forms, policies and procedures, accident/ incident records, complaints log, attendance register, risk assessments.
I am going to a childrens centre group weekly and recording this. I try to offer experiences and have some photographs so far. I am really unsure of what OFSTED will want to see for a 1 year old or what else I should be doing to give this child the best experience possible! Any help hints or tips will be much appreciated. How do you record planning and observations? I am unsure what volume I should be doing these things in daily/weekly etc.
Many thanks in advance!
Kiddleywinks
11-09-2014, 05:50 PM
Hard to know where to start as things are different now to when I registered 3 years ago!
DM's gone and is now EYO (Early Years Outcomes) - although many of us are still using DM purely as a guide for things like next steps
EYFS has been done again starting September 2014 so that would probably be a good place to start, along with checking your policies and procedures comply with the new guidance.
There's some useful information in the free downloads that might help : Free Downloads (http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/freeresources/freedownloads.html)
As far as observations go, I have an all about me form, parent then gets the age relative EYO sheets to mark what things their child does/can do already.
I then use that information as my starting points to guide me where I need to offer opportunities, activities, experiences etc
I have loose 'group planning' normally based on seasons and any events/occasions that month, then individual planning based on childs interests/areas of development/next steps.
When a child does something they've not done before/made a connection to something else etc, I make a formal observation of it, with pic if possible, and make the connection with EYO.
Every 2 or 3 months (whenever I remember/have time/manage a couple of sneaky hours off) I update the childs tracker sheet - which tells me where I need to be going for each individual child.
A 12 mth old may have several obs a week, whereas a 3 year old might have 2 a month, as it's all down to the child's rate of development, so I wouldn't worry about quantity so much as the quality.
When I was inspected, I had 9 month old who was hitting milestone after milestone - I had several obs in one day (little horror! Everyone knows I hate paperwork lol)
The inspector commented that that was too many, my argument was that I am guided by what the children do, when they do it, and at this age, development was pretty rapid, so whilst I understood what she was saying, and I agreed it was a lot on that particular day, it was what it was and I was hoping the child would slow down over Christmas as I was rapidly running out of ink and paper. When they slowed down, so would I ;)
She did laugh at my 'explanation' so either what I said was the right thing to say, or she could understand where I was coming from.
Good luck
sarah707
12-09-2014, 06:56 PM
There is lots of help in free downloads at the top of the forum ...
Free Downloads (http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/freeresources/freedownloads.html)
Welcome back :D