joannes
22-05-2014, 04:09 PM
Well, the inspector left an hour ago so I'm going to post about this now before I forget anything as I know people find these useful!
The inspector called me last Thursday to arrange a day and said she would be here after 1pm. I figured I'd have an early lunch with my boy and was half way through when she came at 12:05!!! She was very lovely though and told me to take my time and finish our lunch as she needed to get organised anyway. She was here for nearly three and a half hours! (Although it didn't feel that long really). The first thing she did was check all of my ID (marriage cert, passport, DBS etc). She then went through my certificates (think she had a checklist on her laptop and was just working through that so not too bad), first aid, safeguarding, childminder course. She then wanted to see my teaching qualifications and degree certificates. This took about half an hour. She then went through the other paperwork stuff, noting certain policies and procedures and I just said "yes" and opened my file at the right page- she didn't read through any of them or skim read them and seemed quite happy with my acknowledgement of them. One thing I do need to do is add a paragraph about bullying onto my behaviour and biting policies. She asked if I had a paper copy of statutory EYFS curriculum, development matters and Know How guide. Fire drills, complaints book, visitors book and other paperwork (My QI officer leant me the NCMA box with attendance records, child records, contracts, accident and incident forms etc.- the box was on my windowsill and the inspector was happy and said "I assume you'll be using all the paperwork in there so you'll have attendance etc.") permission forms etc. This all took about 45 mins.
She spent about 10 minutes going through my history and experience and another 10-15 minutes looking at why I had left teaching and my medical history. My doctor (after charging me £100 for two sentences) hadn't written very legibly and so Ofsted had asked the inspector to question what URS was (should have been Work Related Stress) and so a few things on my medical form had ended up looking like seperate things but actually were all from that one work place (being off sick, being referred to occ health etc). She said that it made much more sense and as a past teacher she knew exactly that there were a LOT of schools like that, shouldn't affect the decision at all as there's not been several episodes.
We looked at risk assessments for around 10 minutes. Again she didn't read my assessments, she was happy that I had them to hand and I rattled off some key points to show I knew it well, mainly what I'd changed specifically for childminding or since starting my documents e.g. replacing my old decking, keeping alcohol out of view, removing toiletries from bathroom etc. and my outings one showing one I'd printed off from a local museum as well as my general outings one.
We spent about 20 minutes going round the house looking at the rooms to be registered, not in huge detail really checking my blind cords were really secure, window locks. She didn't go into my garden although you can see all the back garden from my conservatory and she said that it's an ideal set up, I guess she'd have asked more questions if she'd been concerned. She did say I need to cover my outside tap in case a child fell on it.
We spent around 30 minutes then talking about the learning and development. She asked about what local opportunities there were about, if I'd made any links with local childminders, how I would work with other settings, how I would cover diversity, how I would show next steps, using all about me and baseline assessments, involving parents with baseline assessment. She said she wouldnt go into the safeguarding and activities bit too much with me coming from early years teaching as I had obviously practised that.
The remainder of the time was dotted about seeing to my son who was very well behaved today actually, although a bit hyper and in full on entertaining mode with a stranger about! :rolleyes:
She has told me she is recommending that I meet the criteria for childminding but Ofsted will make the decision based on everything, she can't see me having any problems, wished me well and suggested I consider in a few years becoming an Ofsted inspector freelance to get to go round different settings! lol (I'd remarked how varied and interesting it must be getting to look round sooooo many places). Because of the bank holiday she has said I won't get my certificate next week it will be the week after :-( but hoping this means I will be crossing over to "registered" vv soon!
Hope this helps anyone waiting on inspection. I have to say I wasn't nervous as I'd been waiting months to get to this stage, if I wasn't prepared by today I was never going to be! (NB A graded inspection will be very different lol. I will no doubt be a wreck haha). She did tell me when it comes to my graded inspection to just make sure I had really good paperwork particularly the learning journeys because the more the inspector can find out just from reading those, the less of a grilling they have to give you to get the information they need. So you can then focus on the children and hardly speak to them :laughing: Good luck to anyone waiting!
The inspector called me last Thursday to arrange a day and said she would be here after 1pm. I figured I'd have an early lunch with my boy and was half way through when she came at 12:05!!! She was very lovely though and told me to take my time and finish our lunch as she needed to get organised anyway. She was here for nearly three and a half hours! (Although it didn't feel that long really). The first thing she did was check all of my ID (marriage cert, passport, DBS etc). She then went through my certificates (think she had a checklist on her laptop and was just working through that so not too bad), first aid, safeguarding, childminder course. She then wanted to see my teaching qualifications and degree certificates. This took about half an hour. She then went through the other paperwork stuff, noting certain policies and procedures and I just said "yes" and opened my file at the right page- she didn't read through any of them or skim read them and seemed quite happy with my acknowledgement of them. One thing I do need to do is add a paragraph about bullying onto my behaviour and biting policies. She asked if I had a paper copy of statutory EYFS curriculum, development matters and Know How guide. Fire drills, complaints book, visitors book and other paperwork (My QI officer leant me the NCMA box with attendance records, child records, contracts, accident and incident forms etc.- the box was on my windowsill and the inspector was happy and said "I assume you'll be using all the paperwork in there so you'll have attendance etc.") permission forms etc. This all took about 45 mins.
She spent about 10 minutes going through my history and experience and another 10-15 minutes looking at why I had left teaching and my medical history. My doctor (after charging me £100 for two sentences) hadn't written very legibly and so Ofsted had asked the inspector to question what URS was (should have been Work Related Stress) and so a few things on my medical form had ended up looking like seperate things but actually were all from that one work place (being off sick, being referred to occ health etc). She said that it made much more sense and as a past teacher she knew exactly that there were a LOT of schools like that, shouldn't affect the decision at all as there's not been several episodes.
We looked at risk assessments for around 10 minutes. Again she didn't read my assessments, she was happy that I had them to hand and I rattled off some key points to show I knew it well, mainly what I'd changed specifically for childminding or since starting my documents e.g. replacing my old decking, keeping alcohol out of view, removing toiletries from bathroom etc. and my outings one showing one I'd printed off from a local museum as well as my general outings one.
We spent about 20 minutes going round the house looking at the rooms to be registered, not in huge detail really checking my blind cords were really secure, window locks. She didn't go into my garden although you can see all the back garden from my conservatory and she said that it's an ideal set up, I guess she'd have asked more questions if she'd been concerned. She did say I need to cover my outside tap in case a child fell on it.
We spent around 30 minutes then talking about the learning and development. She asked about what local opportunities there were about, if I'd made any links with local childminders, how I would work with other settings, how I would cover diversity, how I would show next steps, using all about me and baseline assessments, involving parents with baseline assessment. She said she wouldnt go into the safeguarding and activities bit too much with me coming from early years teaching as I had obviously practised that.
The remainder of the time was dotted about seeing to my son who was very well behaved today actually, although a bit hyper and in full on entertaining mode with a stranger about! :rolleyes:
She has told me she is recommending that I meet the criteria for childminding but Ofsted will make the decision based on everything, she can't see me having any problems, wished me well and suggested I consider in a few years becoming an Ofsted inspector freelance to get to go round different settings! lol (I'd remarked how varied and interesting it must be getting to look round sooooo many places). Because of the bank holiday she has said I won't get my certificate next week it will be the week after :-( but hoping this means I will be crossing over to "registered" vv soon!
Hope this helps anyone waiting on inspection. I have to say I wasn't nervous as I'd been waiting months to get to this stage, if I wasn't prepared by today I was never going to be! (NB A graded inspection will be very different lol. I will no doubt be a wreck haha). She did tell me when it comes to my graded inspection to just make sure I had really good paperwork particularly the learning journeys because the more the inspector can find out just from reading those, the less of a grilling they have to give you to get the information they need. So you can then focus on the children and hardly speak to them :laughing: Good luck to anyone waiting!