I had my first inspection today, and although the officer was lovely, im left feeling really dissapointed.

I started working at the beginning of march. I currently work 63 hours a week having 2 unders 5's on roll as well as my own 2 under 5 (child a i have 4 days a week and child b i have just on a friday)

Ive nearly done my SEF and i feel my child safe element was outstanding. she said because i dont do evaluations after each activity i can only have a good! I do my planning and she said this was great, i do my scrapbooks which document and back up i do the activities but she said i also have to do a evaluation to link the planning with the obvious outcome!

GUTTED - and what a load of old SH*+e more paperwork!

in addition to this she said although my daily diaries were great and informative i have not been specific enough on my learning stories. - well for a start i work 25 hours a more a week than a normal childminder i have 4 children of my own and run a 5 bedroomed house, what with planning, end of term learning stories, spaky SEF's, scrapbooks and now more detailed obs and evaluation form i wonder if this £3.5 an hour is really worth it!!

She said because i did not do these two things the best i can get is a good across all catagories, i literally could not do more to protect children and i dont see why i couldnt of had an oustanding for that element at least.
Anyway rant over and can someone please tell me what this evaluation should look like or contain or if anyone has an example that would be great, she didnt say about that just i should have had them. I did point out to her though that she has recently given my friend o/s who does NO diaries, planning, SEF's or any of the EYFS stuff, she replied ah that because she was insoected before sept last year! well thats great then!

any advise would be great.

First of all :clapping: :clapping: on your grading - thats excellent for a first inspection, you should be really proud of yourself.

Its hard when we put our all into what we do, to not get what we think we deserve. I thought I deserved and outstanding for my first inspection (lol) but its only 3 years on and lots of reflection I understand that I was not extremly luck to get my Good.

Give yourself a pat on the back - not many minders get a Good on first inspection, you deserve it.:thumbsup:

well done to you getting good on your first inspecion:clapping: :clapping:

I am sorry to hear your inspection did not go as well as it should have. I cannot offer much advice, other than the SEF should not affect the outcome of your inspection ( this has been repeatedly told to us by our childminding support officer). I have not done mine yet!!
I have recently had an inspection that I felt did not go too well and on the advice of my CSO put in a complaint- the outcome of which was in my favour. At our most recent cluster group our CSO mentioned about putting out a questionnaire to all childminders in our area about the paperwork that is expected of us and how we feel about it- ie too much for one person and don't get paid enough, because of what is expected of us, we are often using our own time and family (own just as/ more important) time to complete the paperwork expected. She is then planning to take it to Ofsted when they have their chats and ask them what they can do about it. My Mum has also suggested getting as many of those who are unhappy about the workload and wage ( bearing in mind we don't even get a pension) associated with it, to write to their local MP's.
My husband doesn't think we get paid enough for what we do.
Childminding is not always given the credit that is due ( i'm meaning in general) the last thing we need is to be knocked down by someone who does not work with children on a close daily basis. I would have thought that having above the basics for delivery of the EYFS and getting to grips with it in such a short time deserves praise in itself.

Sorry this is probably not very helpful but I wanted to let you know you are not alone. I have to say though, that on the forum there is always good advice available, support and something funny that just lifts you!!!:)
Zoe

thankyou for your kind comments - yeah i know but ive been going to bed at 2am getting up to start work @ six, for the last about 8 months all in all, working, sleeping, easting eyfs and childminding, course after course after course, i love my kids they are great and to be fair they are the only reason im still going! i would have thrown in the towel a very long time ago if it wasnt for them. i know i should be proud and i am dont get me wrong but i just know im my heart in some areas like child safety i phyically cannot do any more so just cant see how i am ever going to attain the O/S

Well we in surrey have not been told we need to go into that depth. They have set us up learning journals and told us that if we fill these in it will be enough.

And they are not nearly as complex as what you have been asked for:panic:

ahh thank you that means a lot, yeah i know and i have to totally agree the children are our next generations and i agree with the government that what they are doing in essence is great for the kids BUT ..... we dont even get the minimum wage im charging £4.00 an hour from now on, was £3.50. all this eyfs stuff is compulsory so i thik we should get inspected yearly and the government should then pay us a lump sum every year once we have proven we are delivering the EYFS! even £500 quid a year would be a help.

im in Southampton!

well i was gobsmacked ive got books and paperwork coming out of every orrifice!

I work ****** long hours but that clearly wasnt taken into consideration, i spent nearly every night and weekend still working on more paperwork!

Sarah Jane, don't get disheartened. For a first inspection you did very well.

Lots of Childminders work long hours-I do 55hrs a week with 3 under fives 3 days and 4 two days, in August I will have 4 under fives for 11 1/2hrs a day 5 days a week so you are not alone in that. I have eight children on my books at present. I know lots who have 10-15 on their books and one who has 15 children in the 3 days a week she works!

I would highly recommend you have a look at a book called 'Practical EYFS Handbook' its by Penny Tassoni pub by Heinemann and available from Amazon.

Are you a member of NCMA? If you are you might find like minded cms if you were able to go to your regional forum meetings, the next ones will be toward the end of Sept, beg Oct, your regional office or Bromley will be able to tell you when, Where and who to contact.

I have been minding for 15yrs now and it has taken me 8mths to work out the most economic way in terms of time and paper to record what is needed for EYFS. !! It does sound as if you had a hard inspector but the truth is we don't have to write reams.

I now have three things a Learning Journey scrapbook and the ages and stages sheets and simple planning.
I spend no more than 1 hour a week putting post its of anything of note or a wow moment that may have happened in the week, these may or may not be accompanied by a photo.

I do a more formal observation once or twice a month for each child. I put examples of their work in the scrapbooks or phots if the work is 'lumpy!' I have boxes in the book so it goes home and the parents can add thier comments. The more formal observations record the 'next steps' which leads into simple planning.
Some of the post its may have next steps as well.
I highlight the ages and stages sheets as they reach the stages and I use this to guide planning as well.

I think what they want to see is how the planning and activities link to move the children on and how this improves the outcomes for the children.

I dont do individual daily diaries, I have one for me in which everything is put. I have verbal feeback morning and evening with the parents and they take home the Learning Journeys about once a month an can write comments on them.

Like you I have children of my own, teenagers now but they still need my time and I have a large house, a garden, me and a husband to run!!

Childminding is a demanding job. It is the only job I know that can bend and shape around family life though. When I started I had less children when my 2 were little, now I can have more and so I earn more.

I think you did great Sarah Jane

Congratulations :clapping: :clapping:

Sometimes its not about how well you do or not do but about the inspector on the day - they all seem to have different rules which can be annoying

You did really well though so I would concentrate on that now , well done

Angel xx

I know what your saying hun, but good for your first inspection is great!

Personally as long as my kids are safe and happy, the parents are happy i'm not gonna kill myself to get an outstanding! i know i'm doing a good job, the parents praise me, the kids cry cos they don't want to go home!

I spend one hour a week on paper work,my learning journeys are simple, and my planning is simple.

The only thing I have spent alot of time on is my safeguarding, my ra, my fire chats etc

I think you have to go berserk to get outstanding, i've read lots of reports on here and thought why didn't they get outstanding?? when they got goods.

You done great getting good

Don't be disheartened with not getting outstanding - it is down to the inspector on the day and a good is great, especially since the change. A good now is the old outstanding so you are on par with your friend.

I think that what the inspector is after is linking the activity (planned not everyone) to the next steps, to the next lot of planning. I use a highlighter from the next steps in the obs sheet and the same colour in my planning and that shows what I have done and progression.

How do you show where each child is? This is where a lot of childminders are falling down and Ofsted are pushing for, not necessarily more paperwork but more relevant paperwork with evidence.

You are doing a lot of paperwork but can you cut it down anywhere? Do you need diaries and learning journals and scrapbooks? I have one file for everything.

You are obviously doing a fantastic job so well done on your grading.:clapping:

As for paperwork I'm all for keeping it simple, I do daily diaries but these are basic and more of a communication between parents and me than a detailed what they have done.I use a Record of Achievement, supplied by the local council, to keep a record of their achievements!
I do a next step sheet every month, where i feel the child needs to go in each of the 6 categories and use this for a monthly plan which goes up on the wall by the door.What I do is very basic, (it has to be) but it's easy for everyone to follow(parents included if they were interested!)and to see why I do it.

Like others have said your good may have been the next persons outstanding, I find this so unfair and although I have worked hard for my grade I know of others who have worked hard and got a good and others who have the gift of the gab who have got an outstanding.

just remember that whatever grade you get it does not change your daily practice.

Good is a brilliant first grade!!

Honestly nothing actually changes if you get outstanding, your parents don't respect you any more/any less, you don't get paid more or less, the kiddies you mind don't suddenly turn into angels... you do get a logo to use but mines still in the envelope it came in as I'd quite gotten over the 'I've got an Oustanding' thing by the time it arrived.

If you are working such long hours and are only getting 4 hours sleep a night I'd seriously think about reducing the hours you work hun, life is too short to spend it all working!

Conragtulations on your grading , it really is excellent but i can see why you are pee'd off. SEF shouldn't affect your grading being as its NOT compulsery (EFYS just asks you to evealuate yourslef and work not nessicsrily use there sef). Also where does it say in EYFS that we have to evaluate evry activity ? i would ring up ofsted and complain.

Like the others have said, I think good is a fantasitc result, ill be well pleased if I manage to get good on my first inspection.

Around here people say no-one gives outstanding to a minder on there first inspection no matter how good they are. Dont know if this is true or not, and hope it isnt but thats what everone keeps telling me.

Once again well done on your grading :clapping: :clapping:

Gareth
xx

I do not understand the comment about reflecting on activities... that is not a requirement of the Eyfs.

Yes it's good practice to think about how things went and aim to improve your practice, but there is nothing to say that should be written down.

I think you got an inspector who needs to read her Eyfs! :rolleyes:

Well done :clapping: :jump for joy: :clapping:

As others have said, it's a fine and dandy first inspection grade - and from all I've heard, it changes very little in your day to day life to get anything higher. I personally have a way of thinking regarding childcare that amounts to this:

Is the child happy, learning and progressing, safe and secure?

If the answer is YES for all your children then you are doing your job and no one can ever argue. The more paperwork we have to do/you make for yourself, the less we feel like spending time with kids and the more it becomes a chore rather than the joy that it should be.