Ofsted Big Conversation - NW - 19.9.15
I went to an Ofsted Big Conversation group meeting yesterday where 600 delegates from around the North West were totally inspired! You could hear a pin drop in the room as we listened to senior HMIs from Ofsted talking about the new Common Inspection Framework, promoting British values and making effective use of the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP). Providers then spoke about the definition of teaching in the early years and how to make best use of the time we get between Ofsted’s phone call telling us they are coming to inspect us and the day of the actual inspection. There was then an hour Q and A which went by in a flash!
To feed back to colleagues…
The new documents linked to the ‘Common Inspection Framework’ including the ‘Early Years inspection handbook’ and ‘Inspecting Safeguarding in the early years’ are here - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/changes-...september-2015. They really do walk us through an inspection from telling us what documentation Ofsted might ask to see to giving us a clear indication of what they recognise as good or outstanding provision. If you read through the documents you will get a clear indication of the new style inspections.
Promoting British values is not about flags, pictures of the Royal family, images of the British Isles etc – these are great for teaching children about life in modern Britain but they are nothing to do with British values. The confusion started early and caught a lot of trainers out – but now we have this document which Ofsted have used to train their inspectors - Fundamental British Values in the Early Years | From pregnancy to children aged 5. I delivered some training to childminders in Trafford the other day and we were talking about this point - that flags, posters, special planning sheets etc are not needed. British values is linked to PSED and Understanding the World - if you have these embedded in your practice you will be able to show Ofsted at inspection that you are actively promoting British values. Ofsted have said that if providers put up special flag displays and call them British values it is likely they will be downgraded at inspection.
Ofsted talked about the ways we speak to children – and listen to them – and encourage their views – and teach them about right and wrong – and challenge them when they say or do things that are not appropriate – and challenge their parents if they are using words which are not appropriate – and include them in discussions – and help them create their own rules – and allow them to take risks etc are ‘actively promoting British values’.
We must remember that British values are linked closely to the Prevent duty https://www.gov.uk/government/public...-duty-guidance and understand how we can protect children from radicalisation and extremism. There are some new record keeping requirements linked to this including recording racist incidents, monitoring attendance (which is also linked to safeguarding and preparing children for school), challenging language and practice that does not promote British values and reporting concerns about radicalisation and extremism.
If childminders (and all providers of course) claim EYPP for a child, they must use it effectively to provide that child with the best early education they possibly can so the child makes rapid progress and is ready for school at age 4. It can be used to benefit other children in the provision – for example, it might mean the practitioner can attend training to learn about a child’s medical condition or buy extra resources to support children’s communication and language etc. There are lots of inventive ways providers are using EYPP: you might find this information useful - https://www.early-education.org.uk/p...g-eypp-funding.
I asked Ofsted how they define 'outstanding' teaching and learning - what are they looking for during inspection? Teaching and learning = the activities you plan for children, times when you sit with them and play, asking questions, providing resources to extend learning, supporting independence, extending interests etc. Ofsted say when looking for outstanding teaching they ask whether it is ‘worthy of dissemination to others’. Ofsted advise us to read their new good practice report ‘Teaching and play in the early years, a balancing act’ - https://www.gov.uk/government/public...-balancing-act. There are some best practice videos linked to the report on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWf6oHE9YqY.
Making best use of the time between phone call and inspection doesn’t mean panicking to finish your SEF. The SEF has never been a statutory document and you should challenge your inspector if s/he says you must fill it in. Whether you use the Ofsted SEF or a notebook or an LA document or some other way of recording your professional development (CPD), before Ofsted come to visit you will want to put together a document or file or something to show them how you have improved since your last inspection. Ofsted state that inspectors will be happy to look at a list of ways we have reviewed and improved our provisions which I think most of us already have as we do courses, read magazine articles, get information from threads on here etc. If you are told that you must do a SEF you should challenge your inspector and this is something that you can complain about after the inspection – you must self-evaluate and show how you are constantly improving but you do not necessarily need to use the Ofsted document.
There were quite a few childminder questions during the Q and A – the steering group went through all the submitted questions and included a range of different ones. We are sorry if your question wasn’t asked – we didn’t include it if it duplicated something that had already been covered and even with an hour given over to Q and A we couldn’t possibly include everything.
A childminder spoke passionately about how we can spot and record racism – her question was linked to a recent thread about whether a child had made a racist comment on the Independent Childminders Facebook group. It will always be a passionately argued subject because we want to do our best to support every child to prepare for life in modern Britain. Ofsted state that they want to see 2 main things as well as compliance with the new requirement in the Early Years Inspection handbook to record racist incidents – they want us to challenge racist comments from children and adults alike and they want us to, alongside this, educate children about similarities and differences so, for example, they know how to describe black skin… so we don’t put up a display that is totally inappropriate… so we can clearly show that we understand the importance of preparing children for life in modern Britain.
A childminder asked a question about whistleblowing – linked again to a recent thread on the Independent Childminders Facebook group which, I think, has caused some confusion. The message of the thread was that we must report concerns about children – without delay - to the notifying authority to protect the child. Some childminders have taken it to mean we must have a whistleblowing policy which is not the case because the EYFS states that we do not need to have written policies and procedures (apart from safeguarding and complaints which are required in writing by the Childcare Register). What we must do is know how to report concerns about children without delay and follow our safeguarding procedures to protect the child. Most childminders have a paragraph in their safeguarding procedures about whistleblowing - but please don't get hung up over the semantics of what you call it. You should be advised by your LSCB during training on this.
A childminder got a clap from the delegates for asking about inconsistencies during inspection – yes, we know that there have been problems but Ofsted are listening and they are trying to put things right. The complaints process has been changed to make it more robust and all complaints received by Ofsted are now read by a senior HMI - https://www.gov.uk/government/public...s-about-ofsted. This is a huge step forward and something the Ofsted Big Conversation have been pushing for from day 1. Ofsted are also keen to reassure us that, even if we don’t get the result we want after making a complaint about for example an inspector, all complaints are logged and if a lot of problems show up against a particular inspector they will be looked into in more detail. This again is a big step forward.
It was an excellent gathering of passionate professionals, keen to network and move forward together, embracing the new Common Inspection Framework. Ofsted were there in force, clearly demonstrating their commitment to sharing information, driving forward change and helping us to be as successful as we can possibly be during inspection. I came away totally inspired and I am still buzzing when I recall all that was said and done during the meeting. It was a triumph for the North West Ofsted Big Conversation steering group – 600 delegates = a lot of bodies to look after and I hope everyone went away having learned something new. If you are on Twitter you will see some of the slides from the morning using this hashtag - #NWobc.
Here’s to the next open meeting!! :clapping:
