She came on Wednesday and she was so negative - I fought back and gave as good as I got but was still left feeling so low and upset. Some of the highlights were:
The two year olds funding for children in disadvantaged situations - in my area childminders are to help provide this if they wish - criteria are to have a good rating and to be working towards a level three. I meet and exceed these requirements but was told that she will be handpicking the CM's as SHE thinks that we should be registered to provide 3-4 year olds funded places also. I argued that if the criteria were XYZ what right had she to ask for ABC also but got nowhere.
Next she wants me to complete a tick list, and I can't put in my LJ's for example that a child can tie their own shoe laces until I have seen them do it three times and ticked it off three times, that I can't 'move a child on' to the next stage (counting to 20 for example) until I have ticked off three times that they can count to ten and I have observed it three times - I argued against the use of tick lists and backed my argument up with research findings but got nowhere.
Then she told me that to do the 3-4 year olds funded places I have to do the same paperwork as the nurseries. Why? Because I would be 'going up a level' to do it and 'would be teaching' so I had to do more than I did already. I argued that CM's are not nurseries and that paperwork for nurseries isn't suitable for CM setting, that what we offer is unique and shouldn't be squashed into a nursery shape, that my existing paperwork was excellent and really useful, that was no point doing their paperwork 'just for the sake if it', it should support the child's learning and development, I said that there was no mention in the EYFS about teaching, that it was learning through play, and that anyway, I had a teaching qualification but guess what? I got nowhere -
she took pride in saying that our LEA 'asks for a lot more than others' - why? does it make us any better at our job? I am so cross - she never says anything nice just negative things - she even tried to tell me I was over my numbers with just my baby son and one mindee in the house and said it was a major incident and she should report me to Ofsted!!!! She is such a jobs worth - In four years of minding she has never once said anything constructive, just always pushing more and more on us and it isn't even best practice or research based..... aarghhhhh!
Thanks for the rant - feel better now!
Jen x
Bookmarks