Richard House will redraft his letter

[uf353432]

He's confirmed today in an email that after listening to all the views of the people who have emailed him, and after a few emails back and forth between us that he is going to redraft his letter.

"As I hope I've made clear in my email of yesterday, and speaking as a 'campaigner' myself, I don't wish to do anything that would have the effect of undermining the status of childminders (or which could be used by dubiously motivated politicians to do that). In this spirit, I'm going to revisit substantially the wording of the draft letter, and will run a different version past you for feedback/comments. In doing this, I'll do my very best not to write anything that could be used to undermine the staus of childminders and their crucial work"

[sarahjane]

Brilliant, well done everyone!

[loocyloo]

wow! well done everyone

and well done richard house!

[Penny1959]

I have had same response

Penny

[desiderata]

well done everyone !!

[The Juggler]

brilliant news

[Bridey]

What a result! Well done!

[The Juggler]

just got my copy too I have just written back to thank him for listening. Suppose that's the difference between an academic and a politician huh

[sarah707]

I received the same email

[sarah707]

I have just written to thank him for reconsidering his letter -

Hi Richard thank you so much for your reply.

I think it is excellent that you have reconsidered your stance in view of the many thousands of childminders who feel strongly that it would be a huge disappointment to us if we were to lose our current equal standing with other early years settings.

As I said to you yesterday I agree that Ofsted / EYFS is not perfect by any means. However, as it is the best we’ve got and has just been re-written (so I can’t see them changing it in the near future) we have to work with it and make the most of it.

More experienced childminders like myself promote playful learning to other newer and less experienced childminders and try to help them find ways of completing paperwork etc which makes it less of a burden and more of a support to their business.

I received this email only yesterday from a childminder who had been considering leaving the profession...

Sarah, I just want say a huge thank you for this!! Its just what I needed!

I honestly can't thank you enough. You have really saved me from my final jump off the edge. I'm finding it so difficult being on my own and trying to think how it all works which is really difficult when you don't come from a childcare background!

Just a little bit of mentoring was all it took to set her straight and help her to find the tunnel, with light at the end.

Anyhow, enough of that, I look forward to reading your re-draft of your letter. Thank you again for listening.

All the best,

Sarah
www.knutsfordchildminding.co.uk

[Penny1959]

I also emailed him to thank him for replying to me and my colleagues.

To be honest when I first read his reply I thought he had actually taken on board my personal comments and the flattering comments were directed at me personally.

In a way I would have prefered an email that made it clear that we were getting the same reply.

Personally I do not like copy and paste replies as I take the time to write personally and so expect either a personal reply OR a reply that makes clear that sending to lots - a simple Dear All or Dear childminder would have made it clear • rather than Dear Penny or Sarah or Debbie and so on.

I await his re worded letter - but not sure that he has fully understood.

I have forwarded his reply to those that I forwarded his email to including Vhild Care Journal and NW
Penny

[uf353432]

but he is now infamous for his round robin style emails

[Smiley]

Hopefully I will also hear from him, I emailed him earlier today