Positive Ofsted Inspections

[emmamc]

With all the negativity at the moment with Ofsted I thought I'd start a thread for people to post their positive experiences when the inspector was human and approachable!
I think we have a one-sided view here as people tend to post more about the bad experiences to help people avoid the same mistakes.

I had my inspection last week, was told from the start that she was working from the new framework which is much more about how I interacted with the children. She said she would be in my home about 3 hours but was only there 2 and a half. She was absolutely human and sat herself down at the dining table with her laptop.
She asked me questions (from what I can remember!) on safeguarding, mobile phone policy, my communication with parents and other settings, how I would adapt things for children with additional needs, my awareness of what stages the children are at, and following things up with next steps. She looked at my SEF, daily diary's, learning journals, DBS, policies and procedures, medication and incident records, safeguarding course, asked what level my qualifications were and asked what paperwork I use to track children's progress (as in early years outcomes and characteristics of effective learning).

I didn't feel judged or intimidated and just got on with my usual activities with the children.
Overall not as bad as I was imagining at all!

I hope others have some positive experiences they can share

[Mrs Scrubbit]

Well done and a very good idea too! xx

[jadavi]

Thanks

A much needed calming Ofsted thread

Both mine were lovely too as in nice lady and affirming comments.

[FussyElmo]

Its the nature of life really people only tend to tell you the negative stories. If you ask a room of 20 people their opinion on something I betting 18 of them would be negative.

My last inspection a year ago now was lovely. In fact all the inspectors I have had have been really nice and down to earth.

[line6]

Oh thank you so much! My first inspection is due this week or next and I was terrified reading all the negative stuff! Lovely to hear it's not always a nightmare!

[JCrakers]

My first Ofsted visit was lovely. The inspector was lovely and everything was relaxed I felt at ease and she gave me a great report with only 1 thing flagged which was to keep records of medication given as I was giving them to parents and not keeping on for myself...doh

It was the summer holidays and I think I had 3-4 children and we were out it the garden a lot.

[Gillian Haywood]

My last inspection (almost 5 years ago so waiting in anticipation) I thought would be awful...the inspector called to let me know she would be coming the next week...I told fellow minders the next day and they told me she was a tirant...had people in tears etc....by the time she came on the thursday I was so nervous that I greeted her with the comment "hello...gosh you come with a warning label" talk about mouth first !! To be fair she laughed and quickly put me at ease....she stayed for 2.5 hours looked at my policies, learning journeys, registers and certificates etc...questioned why I hadn't used my accident book very much...I do use it but only when they have an accident...can't help that they don't much lol!!! Got a good at the end with recommendations to have a starting point for learning journeys....not bad at all !!

[AliceK]

I had my latest one in April this year. She was lovely, very human. It was difficult for her to know when to come out to me as all my EY's children are shift-workers so some days I might have all 4, some days only 1 and some days none of them. That coupled with the fact that some only come for the afternoon and some all day and some just for a couple of hours, no 2 days are ever the same lol. Eventually she actually booked an appointment, she knew I wouldn't have any children at the time she was coming but knew I would be going to nursery just before lunch to collect 2. When she arrived she asked to have a look around the house and then we sat down in the kitchen and had a chat. About our dogs, not just childminding stuff lol. Then she walked with me to nursery, on the walk I told her about the children I was collecting, where they were developmentally and a bit about their personalities etc. After lunch she watched us make some cakes. Then whilst the cakes were cooking she told me she'd seen enough and talked me through her "findings". She was very down to earth and chatty throughout and I didn't feel intimidated at all. She was definitely more interested in seeing me interact with the children and how well I knew the children than she was in my paperwork, she read through "samples" of my paperwork certainly not the whole lot. All in all a positive experience

xxxx

[Simona]

With all the negativity at the moment with Ofsted I thought I'd start a thread for people to post their positive experiences when the inspector was human and approachable!
I think we have a one-sided view here as people tend to post more about the bad experiences to help people avoid the same mistakes.

I had my inspection last week, was told from the start that she was working from the new framework which is much more about how I interacted with the children. She said she would be in my home about 3 hours but was only there 2 and a half. She was absolutely human and sat herself down at the dining table with her laptop.
She asked me questions (from what I can remember!) on safeguarding, mobile phone policy, my communication with parents and other settings, how I would adapt things for children with additional needs, my awareness of what stages the children are at, and following things up with next steps. She looked at my SEF, daily diary's, learning journals, DBS, policies and procedures, medication and incident records, safeguarding course, asked what level my qualifications were and asked what paperwork I use to track children's progress (as in early years outcomes and characteristics of effective learning).

I didn't feel judged or intimidated and just got on with my usual activities with the children.
Overall not as bad as I was imagining at all!

I hope others have some positive experiences they can share

Well done...positivity helps and it has certainly made me optimistic there are good inspectors out there

[TraFerd]

I had my first graded inspection last Tuesday and my inspector was lovely! She was normal and down to earth and very good with the children. She was full of compliments which gave me the confidence to be myself. She obviously liked children herself as she seemed very taken with my own little boy. I had set up a place to plug in her laptop but as it was fully charged she followed me around the house and got up to have a good look at the activities we did, and even sat at the table with us at lunch time.

I got the impression that what she was most interested in was my bond with the children and how comfortable they were with me, and commented that she was happy to see how much I clearly enjoy my work.

[Mouse]

I have to be honest, all my inspections over the years have been positive. I've had the same inspector for the last 2 and she was lovely, although other cms haven't liked her.

I wonder if it helps that I'm quite confident during my inspections - I'm just a quivering wreck afterwards! The lady I had for the last 2 was very positive about everything. I had filled in a comprehensive SEF and I think that answered a lot of her questions. She just needed to see proof for everything I'd claimed I did. Towards the end of the inspection she relaxed and starting playing with the children. Before she left she thanked me for such a lovely morning. She said it had been a tough week & that some of the practices she'd seen were really disheartening. She said it was lovely to come to somewhere so nice