Quote Originally Posted by bunyip View Post
Oh come on, there's a sensible answer to this. Buy enough windmills and stick them in your lawn in a pattern so as to spell out (in your bestest writing) the words "S0D OFF OFSTED".

This satisfies the twin 'requirements' for windmills and for a 'language-rich' lawn. (And they can go on your expenses.)


Note: to be fair on inspectors, they are in a no-win situation. When they tell CMs vague things like "need a rich/stimulating environment" we complain they've not been specific. When they give examples such as the jolly old windmills thing, we accuse Mrs* O of being over-proscriptive.


* or Mr/Ms/Miss - other gender choices are available, let's all keep this nice and diverse.
I think that is taking the issue too far Bunyip...some of us remember Ofsted as it was pre privatisation and they did achieve a lot...got rid of those who could not be bothered to take up the EYFS challenge for a start!

We were not scared of Ofsted because they did their job according to the book...they came to judge our practice but rather than the present climate of fear.... which this forum creates and supports...we were not downgraded as it is called now ...we were praised and encouraged to improve

First of all the windmills business started on FB...who takes FB seriously?
Just because one CM was told to buy one ...the whole group followed like sheep and told CMs that we MUST have windmills?
come on....

Ofsted have rightly been criticised for privatising inspections and the result has been patchy, subjective and a true mess...hence the decision to take some inspections in-house again for schools and FE...however...the problem lies with the training inspectors get and also our knowledge of the EYFS and how we engage with inspectors on the day

For this thread in particular that is very obvious...
no one has asked us for labels...although those trained in HighScope will use them because they understand the reason behind them which relate to literacy, PSED and also many other areas of learning

Being despondent in this occasion will backfire...we are talking about a print rich environment which CMs can easily provide because we are out and about in the community each day...unlike nurseries where the vast majority of the time children are inside 4 walls ...which are overloaded with labels and print ...often far too high for the kids to get any learning from.

So if cms do not want to use labels ...what can we provide instead?...lets discuss that.