sing-low
10-11-2013, 04:11 PM
To be honest, much of it is a blur as I found it very difficult to 'work' and have someone watching and asking questions but there are a few things that may be helpful to others which I can share. This may be a bit of a ramble.
Get the basics right - read your visitor's policy and make sure that you follow it - look at Mrs O's ID card before you let her in the house, sign her in, introduce her to the children. The introduction and welcome bit is a key part of my USP and I had mentioned it in my SEF. I had warned my two year old beforehand that we were having a 'special visitor' who was coming to see how much fun we all had. Mrs O herself told me that her mobile was in her bag (I'd forgotten this bit) and I then said 'please don't take photos of the children'. This may seem like a silly thing to say but the main thing I got from the inspection was to state the obvious. Eg. when asked about kitchen safety, say that you put pans at the back of the stove and turn the handles away from the edge. This was all in my RA's but Mrs O wanted to hear it from me before she looked at the paperwork (fair enough, as you can write all the right things but if you don't actually do them it's not worth the paper it's written on).
We did a tour of the house (was picked up on no liquid soap, although not an action as I'm only caring for babies at present so no-one other than family currently washes their hands). Then we played for a bit while chatting about learning and development stuff. Then it was time for me to get lunch. I made sure that I was scrupulous about washing my hands, heating the food properly (using my temperature probe), wiping the table, cleaning hands etc.
Then we did some more playing and there were more questions about learning and development. After that it was baby's nap time. Then we got into the safeguarding questions. This was a particularly trying time as naptime is when I make up bottles. What with answering questions and getting craft out for my two year old, I managed to drop part of the bottle on the floor so then had to re-sterilise it (oops).
After I'd been grilled on safeguarding, we moved on to learning journals and other paperwork. This is where I know I am weakest and I was honest about this. I've tried two different ways of doing LJs but still haven't worked out a system that I like. Mrs O was happy with this and made some helpful suggestions. This bit felt like more of a discussion (I think I'd achieved my grading by then).
In all, it was an exhausting but good experience. I'd been very worried about it beforehand as I know some cm's have had inspectors with their own agenda and unreasonable demands.
My other tips come from my husband's wonderful aunt who has a wealth of early years experience. She advised me to try and answer the inspector's questions before they were asked. For example, one of the things I don't do well on is my observations. Mrs O said I needed to have more about 'how' the child was learning, so I chimed in with - oh, yes, I'm hoping to get some training on the 'characteristics of effective learning' which was obviously what she was getting at. And with a first graded I think it's important to get a balance between being confident in what you're doing but also honest that you are still learning. I knew that I was meeting all the safeguarding and welfare requirements but that my LJ's weren't as good as I wanted them to be.
I had done a very comprehensive SEF (HUGE thanks to Sarah for her very helpful guide to do this). Mrs O commented very favourably on the detail that I had included in it. I found it very helpful to do to help me think through my practice and identify things that I want to improve. Also, just writing down what I do, gave me the confidence that I am looking after my LOs well.
Get the basics right - read your visitor's policy and make sure that you follow it - look at Mrs O's ID card before you let her in the house, sign her in, introduce her to the children. The introduction and welcome bit is a key part of my USP and I had mentioned it in my SEF. I had warned my two year old beforehand that we were having a 'special visitor' who was coming to see how much fun we all had. Mrs O herself told me that her mobile was in her bag (I'd forgotten this bit) and I then said 'please don't take photos of the children'. This may seem like a silly thing to say but the main thing I got from the inspection was to state the obvious. Eg. when asked about kitchen safety, say that you put pans at the back of the stove and turn the handles away from the edge. This was all in my RA's but Mrs O wanted to hear it from me before she looked at the paperwork (fair enough, as you can write all the right things but if you don't actually do them it's not worth the paper it's written on).
We did a tour of the house (was picked up on no liquid soap, although not an action as I'm only caring for babies at present so no-one other than family currently washes their hands). Then we played for a bit while chatting about learning and development stuff. Then it was time for me to get lunch. I made sure that I was scrupulous about washing my hands, heating the food properly (using my temperature probe), wiping the table, cleaning hands etc.
Then we did some more playing and there were more questions about learning and development. After that it was baby's nap time. Then we got into the safeguarding questions. This was a particularly trying time as naptime is when I make up bottles. What with answering questions and getting craft out for my two year old, I managed to drop part of the bottle on the floor so then had to re-sterilise it (oops).
After I'd been grilled on safeguarding, we moved on to learning journals and other paperwork. This is where I know I am weakest and I was honest about this. I've tried two different ways of doing LJs but still haven't worked out a system that I like. Mrs O was happy with this and made some helpful suggestions. This bit felt like more of a discussion (I think I'd achieved my grading by then).
In all, it was an exhausting but good experience. I'd been very worried about it beforehand as I know some cm's have had inspectors with their own agenda and unreasonable demands.
My other tips come from my husband's wonderful aunt who has a wealth of early years experience. She advised me to try and answer the inspector's questions before they were asked. For example, one of the things I don't do well on is my observations. Mrs O said I needed to have more about 'how' the child was learning, so I chimed in with - oh, yes, I'm hoping to get some training on the 'characteristics of effective learning' which was obviously what she was getting at. And with a first graded I think it's important to get a balance between being confident in what you're doing but also honest that you are still learning. I knew that I was meeting all the safeguarding and welfare requirements but that my LJ's weren't as good as I wanted them to be.
I had done a very comprehensive SEF (HUGE thanks to Sarah for her very helpful guide to do this). Mrs O commented very favourably on the detail that I had included in it. I found it very helpful to do to help me think through my practice and identify things that I want to improve. Also, just writing down what I do, gave me the confidence that I am looking after my LOs well.