Mrs O has just left the building!!!!

Ive finally got the grade I've been working so hard for!! Yahoo!

Now thats out of my system.....

Mrs O was very nice and reassuring.

She asked about safeguarding, what would I do if a child showed injuries etc

She was hot on starting points and said that the best thing to do was to give the parents an age appropriate early years outcome form and get them to highlight what their child can do - saves us doing it and shows working with parents. Ofsted want to see this.

She was happy to see a British Values poster up and said that that would be more important soon and inspectors would want to see that.

Also hot was getting children ready for school. I spoke about the things we do such as helping them become independent in dressing, eating, self care etc and talked about doing activities for this age group (when the younger ones were sleeping) which involved letter recognition etc

Planning is all in my head, I said myself and my assistant talked about what we will do that day/week (following their interest) and reflected afterwards on the activity discussing ways to make it better.

As others have said you need to know your children well. Mrs O followed one childs progress through learning journeys etc so I spoke mainly about this child saying about an area of development that we needed to help with and how we were doing this.

For the activity I chose to make pizza's (I had practiced making cupcakes but it wasn't successful, child trying to eat raw egg so changed it) I had 8 children ranging from 18months to 10 years so it was a bit difficult to find something for all of them but as long as you are aware of what went wrong it doesn't matter if things do. Id said that I would normally do this as two separate activities for the different age groups and that I was going to have to rush through it a bit to keep the younger ones engaged. One boy didn't want to join in, 18 month old but I told Mrs O that he wasn't keen of getting messy and joining in which is why I chose this activity and I knew it would be a challenge! I would say don't go for an activity thats too simple and safe as it won't show how you cope.

Regular summery sheets for parents to see their children's progress is quite important.

Mrs O warned us that there were lots of malicious complaints being made and to always be aware of this when out and about with the kiddies.

I rated myself outstanding in my SEF and I updated just before Mrs O came so that my examples were up to date and I could show current evidence.

New safeguarding coming in is important, she said download it and read through there is a few changes, one being that children's attendance is to be monitored more closely and they will need to see written evidence of why a child is off so that recurring absences are explained. I said that I always write in the diary why a child is off (holiday, sick etc) any way so this may be enough.

She also advised writing anything down that parents ask you to do and why. If they ask you wake children from their sleep etc as a nursery was recently downgraded as they didn't have written evidence as to why they tied a child to a chair with a scarf (it was because the child had a disability and was being taught to sit in a bigger chair for social reasons)

I can't think of anything else but if I do Ill add it to this post.

Sue x

Quote:

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Originally Posted by suzyblue

Ive finally got the grade I've been working so hard for!! Yahoo! Now thats out of my system..... Mrs O was very nice and reassuring. She asked about safeguarding, what would I do if a child showed injuries etc She was hot on starting points and said that the best thing to do was to give the parents an age appropriate early years outcome form and get them to highlight what their child can do - saves us doing it and shows working with parents. Ofsted want to see this. She was happy to see a British Values poster up and said that that would be more important soon and inspectors would want to see that. Also hot was getting children ready for school. I spoke about the things we do such as helping them become independent in dressing, eating, self care etc and talked about doing activities for this age group (when the younger ones were sleeping) which involved letter recognition etc Planning is all in my head, I said myself and my assistant talked about what we will do that day/week (following their interest) and reflected afterwards on the activity discussing ways to make it better. As others have said you need to know your children well. Mrs O followed one childs progress through learning journeys etc so I spoke mainly about this child saying about an area of development that we needed to help with and how we were doing this. For the activity I chose to make pizza's (I had practiced making cupcakes but it wasn't successful, child trying to eat raw egg so changed it) I had 8 children ranging from 18months to 10 years so it was a bit difficult to find something for all of them but as long as you are aware of what went wrong it doesn't matter if things do. Id said that I would normally do this as two separate activities for the different age groups and that I was going to have to rush through it a bit to keep the younger ones engaged. One boy didn't want to join in, 18 month old but I told Mrs O that he wasn't keen of getting messy and joining in which is why I chose this activity and I knew it would be a challenge! I would say don't go for an activity thats too simple and safe as it won't show how you cope. Regular summery sheets for parents to see their children's progress is quite important. Mrs O warned us that there were lots of malicious complaints being made and to always be aware of this when out and about with the kiddies. I rated myself outstanding in my SEF and I updated just before Mrs O came so that my examples were up to date and I could show current evidence. New safeguarding coming in is important, she said download it and read through there is a few changes, one being that children's attendance is to be monitored more closely and they will need to see written evidence of why a child is off so that recurring absences are explained. I said that I always write in the diary why a child is off (holiday, sick etc) any way so this may be enough. She also advised writing anything down that parents ask you to do and why. If they ask you wake children from their sleep etc as a nursery was recently downgraded as they didn't have written evidence as to why they tied a child to a chair with a scarf (it was because the child had a disability and was being taught to sit in a bigger chair for social reasons) I can't think of anything else but if I do Ill add it to this post. Sue x

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Well done did you get the outstanding you wanted?

I do t understand your last point about getting parents to write down things? What's that about a nursery tying a person to a chair? That sounds horrid??

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Originally Posted by mumofone

Well done did you get the outstanding you wanted?

I do t understand your last point about getting parents to write down things? What's that about a nursery tying a person to a chair? That sounds horrid??

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That was an example she gave me where the nursery did as the mum wanted but because they had not written down her wishes and the inspector just saw a child sitting at a chair with a scarf around her (to help hold her in place because of her disability, so nothing untoward) but they still got inadequate regardless that the mum had asked them to sit the child this way.

(I did get the big O)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by suzyblue

...

New safeguarding coming in is important, she said download it and read through there is a few changes, one being that children's attendance is to be monitored more closely and they will need to see written evidence of why a child is off so that recurring absences are explained. I said that I always write in the diary why a child is off (holiday, sick etc) any way so this may be enough.

...

Sue x

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Congratulations!
I am confused about the point above, sounds like a school thing (or about funded places?). Why should we be concerned about absences (with the parent letting us know of course- if they just went AWOL with no explanation it might be a concern!), parents surely have the right to have a day (or as many days as they want) at home with their little one, aren't they??
Can anyone elaborate on this at all? Not heard anything like it for CM setting!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moggy

Congratulations! I am confused about the point above, sounds like a school thing (or about funded places?). Why should we be concerned about absences (with the parent letting us know of course- if they just went AWOL with no explanation it might be a concern!), parents surely have the right to have a day (or as many days as they want) at home with their little one, aren't they?? Can anyone elaborate on this at all? Not heard anything like it for CM setting!

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It was in the context of safeguarding so isn't that if parents were, say, trying to hide injuries, then a pattern of absence would be one way of spotting it?

And well done, Suzyblue!!!!

Congratulations! Especially with so many children!

I think if a parent asked me to tie a child to a chair I would definitely want written confirmation, just because of how it could look to an outsider! I think it would raise the eyebrows of a lot of people. :S

Congratulations and thank you for sharing.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

A child tied to a chair with a scarf...Sounds very dangerous and I am not surprised they got inadequate. How can it be safe, regardless of whether the mum asked them to do it or not. They should have a proper harness, which in my opinion is much more dignified as well. Imagine if we tied a baby to a pushchair because we are training them to sit instead of lying down in a pram.

Am I missing something???

Congratulations and thanks for sharing. Sounds like you had a terrific inspection.

I was thinking today that making up a bubble mixture (no idea how but it might involve varying quantities of washing up liquid?), involving them in pouring it into different sized bowls, then blowing bubbles with the children might be a nice 'inspection' activity? If anyone has a good recipe for home-made bubble liquid, do share!

(I once tried spooning dry pasta into containers/sorting it. I also tried finger painting with yellow poster paint. My lot decided to try to eat the pasta, and decided the paint looked like custard, so asked for spoons instead of paint brushes during the inspection. :laughing:)

Well done again. Put you grade on beside your name on here when you feel you are able to.

All the best,

LK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moggy

Congratulations!
I am confused about the point above, sounds like a school thing (or about funded places?). Why should we be concerned about absences (with the parent letting us know of course- if they just went AWOL with no explanation it might be a concern!), parents surely have the right to have a day (or as many days as they want) at home with their little one, aren't they??
Can anyone elaborate on this at all? Not heard anything like it for CM setting!

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Yes...it was discussed at the London OBC in June.
One reason is that some providers are asked to monitor attendance because of the funding...as we know some LAs may ask for the money back but we do not have to refund this.....however parents can take children out as long as this is something we know about.
For instance ...if you have allocated a space to a child for the 15 hours and the child never turns up or misses a lot of hours we can raise this issue...absence would have an effect on the child's outcomes

Second...I think this may have to do with monitoring children attendance in connection with radicalisation and in some case child protection....but it is my interpretation....do we have children who attend sporadically and do we have concerns?

That is why we need to look out for the new safeguarding guidance which I am sure will come out soon...Ofsted have already updated theirs and published it a while back!

Well done on your inspection.

I have to say I will not be putting up any posters specifically about British values. They are embedded in my daily practice and always have been I don't need a poster up. Some of the posters I have seen are all about Red Buses and Black Taxis and such and those have nothing to do with British values under Prevent.

Interesting about Attendance. I have always used the Pacey Attendance Registers and I always get the parents to sign each week. I mark the reason on them if a child is off and I also mark my time off on them as well (to remind the parents it is coming up!).

Suzyblue...Congratulations on your Grade and hopefully it will be endorsed by Ofsted Quality Assurance team.

RS...I agree that posters of British Values will not be necessary...I hope we are not going to start putting these up as some did with windmills in their garden
BV have been embedded in EYFS since it came out and they are evidenced by practice not posters.

On attendance ...I forgot to mention at the London OBC Ofsted did say they would soon start checking how we use the EYPP...I would assume the DfE wants to see how this funding is used ...we'll see !


Hopefully all Tribal and Prospects inspectors will get this message as they are at this very moment being trained by Ofsted itself on the new CIF...one of the aims is to eliminate individual inspectors' judgement as they have to follow what is on their targets...and yes 'starting points' are very much important as the Ofsted slides on CIF show as is recording everything parents tell us.

I am rather surprised though this inspector mentioned the case of the child strapped to a chair in a nursery...I would have thought this was a matter of confidentiality between the setting and the inspector even though the issue would result in a downgrade?