Latest ofsted inspection. You just can't win!!
Hi All, thought I’d share details of my (our) inspection today. After a month of waiting (yes a month from the first call advising we were to be inspected) she finally came today. She did confirm Friday she would be out this week so we were fully prepared – and then some!
The inspection itself was pretty painless, the inspector was really nice although was very nitpicky about questions and asked some in such a way that we had no idea what she was driving at.
It mostly all came down to safeguarding – she asked endless questions about every issue regarding safeguarding, child protection and keeping children safe. We were also asked about how we can prove who was looking after which children and when should a safeguarding matter arise (something for co-minders to consider).
She looked at permissions, accident/incident and medication permissions and parental signatures.
She was very keen on parental involvement with children’s learning journeys and two way info sharing. Other setting info sharing too.
Things she mentioned which might help others:
She liked how the day was mostly child-led. We followed the energy levels, interest and desires of the children. We went outside and came in when they indicated they had had enough. Stopped an acitivity when they had clearly had enough. We did an adult supervised activity (saltdough with glitter and gems) which the children really enjoyed and she liked. But the majority of the day was driven by the children’s wants.
She also commented on our resources being stored in clear containers so the kids can see what is inside – plus the dual language on storage.
Overall we were happy with the grade given and wanted no more. However, the recommendations have really peed us off. We feel they are totally unjustified and are unsure whether to pursue further.
Our recommendations were
- We don’t display artwork or photos of the children in our care. We actually have a brochure the children can flick through of them at play with captions like “I can clap” and “I love to dance” to promote print in the environment and for them to see themselves but I forgot to get it out! We do display artwork – our walls are chocabloc with artwork from older children and previous mindees (because they make a lovely display). Our current mindees are between 1 and 2 and their first marks have been put in their scrapbooks and/or sent home for parents. Most of them have only been in our care for a few months and we have been doing lots of other stuff. Painting/drawing too but I’m sorry, we don’t want a child’s first scribbles or hands mashed in paint adorning our walls. It means nothing to the children although she said it would make them feel valued…..
- One of us didn’t do any counting / use number language in daily routine. We both do ALL the time. We didn’t happen to today WHEN she was observing. My co-mindee was all set to walk the children along stepping stones in the garden and count steps as she always does but Mrs. O kept badgering her with safeguarding questions!!
- We tried to set the living room up with the 7 areas of learning as usual but got a role play farm out as the children love it and its great for promoting animal sounds, quantities, size etc. The children we have are of course are too young to play with it intact for very long and scattered the pieces, chewed them, put cows and pigs in bags and boxes and made a lovely mess which we did our best to keep tidied and focused. Added to the other toys out for the child who only wants to press buttons and hear tunes there was quite a lot of stuff out. She said we had too many toys out and the children couldn’t move about freely. But that was one day? Its not always like that and we were trying our best to promote the 7 areas of learning.
Our annoyance lies in the fact that, had we only got a few toys out, she’d have penalised us for NOT covering the 7 areas. If we had counted at every given opportunity, she’d have penalised us for not covering shapes and colours or something else. Its like however hard you try if they want to find a hole they will. I can accept this if there are holes / areas in which we are lacking, but just because she didn’t see it today – in the short 5 hours she was with us - doesn’t mean we don’t do it as a rule. We have paperwork/photos/written evidence that we do everything required but she didn’t see it all today!
Like I said, we are more than happy with the grading given and only need Ofsted’s opinion for the sake of acquiring new business if we need to! (we are outstanding to our parents and children which is all that matters to us). But it irks us that we work flipping hard at this job, do a flipping good job and the recommendations are nitpicky and totally unjustified!!
Any sane advice appreciated. And yes the vat of wine is going down nicely thankyou!!
