I had my first inspection today. The very first thing Mrs O said was that the first inspection is normally a satisfactory and that is the level she is expecting me to be at. Nice to know she has decided even before arriving. My heart pretty much sank at that
Then she looked at my certificate and said I have been overminding because I did not have it changed when my son started school! She said it might have to be an unsatisfactory because of that. I thought the rising five clause applied to my son but she said it only applies to minded children. I pretty much burts into tears and was a complete wreck. Obviously it was my fault for not realising and not reading the sticky on the forum carefully enough.
So I tried to pull myself together an we continued with the inspection. She read through my SEF and said it was the best she has ever seen (thank you Sarah for the fab ebook ) She said I had put in a tremendous amount of work and she could see that the children really enjoy coming. She also said that my observations are very good and she can see that I have a very good understanding of all the aspects of the EYFS and that everything is tied in together really well. She said she would really like to give me a good across the board but will have to talk to her supervisor about the overminding and whether that can be overlooked with just a warning letter. She reiterated that she doesn't normally give a good at a first inspection and that I should be really proud of myself. At this point I was still a bit tearful due to the earlier comments!
The improvements I need to make are to ensure better free flow between the indoors and the outdoors (well we were outside for about 90 minutes during the inspection and the door was wide open the whole time so not sure what more I can do). The other improvement is to teach the children why they are washing their hands (the mindee I had is aged one and I talked about washing the dirt and germs away while I washed her hands but clearly that was not enough!). She did say that they are only minor recommendations because she has to give some.
I just called my CDO in a flood of tears and she is quite disappointed because she thought I might get outstanding so now I feel like I have let her down too
I will just have to wait and see if it comes back as a good or an unsatisfactory now. Wish me luck!
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