Throughout our conversation Justine refers to the inspection handbook (IH) and to the EYFS statutory framework (EYFS.SF) giving page and paragraph references to identify where to find further information on a particular topic. The inspection handbook can be downloaded here and the statutory framework here. R: Can you talk me through how a ‘typical’ inspection day starts – I know that there are things that you might have to react to on the day that might make things a bit different – but generally, our FSF members want to know ‘what actually happens?’ Well, I will already have chatted to the provider the day before I do the inspection so hopefully I have put them at their ease a little and they know what to expect. When I first arrive I am usually greeted by the childminder, the manager, or sometimes the owner – I always show them my ID. R: What ID do you have? We all have a photo ID passbook with our inspector number on it and we also have a photo ID card which we wear on a lanyard. We should always be asked for both – I usually have both out ready anyway. If providers aren’t happy with the ID they are shown they can phone the Ofsted helpline number and ask them to verify the ID, the number is in the back of the passbook. R: Once you’re in the door, what then? Generally, in a setting I’m asked to sign in the visitors’ book. Childminder’s don’t have to have one but many do. If someone forgets because they’re flustered I understand that and I ask them if they would like me to sign in. Although, saying that, if there are other safeguarding aspects that come up I might ask why I wasn’t asked to sign in. I always look through the visitors book to see if it’s kept up to date – I usually expect to see details of parents coming for show-rounds or assessors from colleges signed in, that sort of thing. If there aren’t many visitors it might be because there genuinely aren’t many visitors or it might be that the setting is not paying attention to visitors – which might raise questions for me about safeguarding. I always ask a couple of members of staff about visitors if there aren’t many signed in – if they say ‘we never have any’ I am usually satisfied that the safeguarding is robust. But, if the member of staff says for example, ‘oh yes, my assessor comes in every week and the vicar visits on a Thursday’ I might raise questions about how visitors to the site are monitored with the manager in the leadership and management meeting. Some settings that I go to, and most childminders, ask me to take my shoes off indoors – and that’s fine. I expect to do whatever the setting expects everyone else to do. The manager usually shows me to an office or an area of the hall, sometimes it’s the stage, where I can put my things and where we can collect paperwork to be looked at. R: What about your phone? That’s often discussed on the FSF We need to have a phone for our own safety as we usually work alone. Also, we need to be able to contact Ofsted or our own employer (Prospects or Tribal) if we need to clarify a point, take advice or make a notification call e.g. if we judge the setting we are in to be inadequate. I wouldn’t expect to carry my phone round with me, and I don’t think other inspectors would either – however we do need to get to it easily. I wouldn’t be happy, for example, to lock the phone away and only have the manager be able to get it for me. From my own personal safety point of view, I would want to be able to access my phone independently. So, what I do is tell the manager that I have a phone, I switch it off and put it away in my bag or coat and put them away in a room away from children. I would be happy to leave it in my car if there was no place in the setting that was ‘child-free’. It’s never been a problem for me. If I do need to make a call, I always go outside or into a room where there are no children. R: OK, so you’re in the setting – you’ve signed in and put your things away - what next? I have a chat with the manager and go through the things I will be doing and to see if anything has changed since we talked the day before. The things we cover in the initial meeting are all listed in the inspection handbook (p13, para 49). I keep my laptop with me when I’m being shown round and when I’m working. I also have a notebook and pencil – my laptop doesn’t like the rain if I am observing in the garden! The first thing to do is a tour of the setting – that gives me a real sense of what I’m going to see and also gives me a chance to plan how I am going to spend my time. It’s useful for me to ask, while I’m doing the tour, housekeeping things like when the mealtimes are, when babies sleep, if any groups are going out for walks. I don’t want to miss anything. I can also be introduced to all members of staff and I can say hello to some children. I will have already talked to the provider about tracking children and so I’ll ask for them to be discretely pointed out to me as we walk round. There might be parents waiting to talk to me too and I’m keen not to make them wait for me so sometimes I will see them first and then chat with the manager after – I’m always happy to be flexible – but it’s really important that I get to talk to parents. Generally, I see parents at lunchtime – there tends to be a drop off / pick up time then. Parents give invaluable information about the provision and often are very insightful about what the setting does well and what they are working on to improve (IH. page 19, para 80,81,82) I always tell the manager that I am “totally interruptible” and that if something great is happening in one place and I am in another place then they should come and get me – I want to see the best of the setting, so they should ‘show it off’. Managers are always pleased to hear this – I think in the past, the inspections have been less focused on observations of staff and children and were more focused on paperwork and so they had mountains of paperwork to go through and too much time spent observing held them back. R: But FSF members spend an awful lot of time getting the paperwork ready, if you don’t look at it what is the point of them doing it? Your members need to have certain paperwork in place as stipulated in the Statutory Framework. I look at certain documents always, these are the ones that we ask for in the notification call (IH p10, para 37) I will look at other documents if I have queries or concerns that I can’t resolve through conversations or observations. It’s important that there are clear policies and procedures so that staff know what to do – I can tell if they know what to do by talking to them, I don’t always need to read a document. R: What do you mean exactly? For example, there is no requirement to have huge planning documents. However, there is a requirement to plan to move children on in their learning. (EYFS.SF p13, para 2.1) So, if I can see that what children are doing is purposeful, meaningful and challenging and when I talk to staff about what children are doing they explain about children’s individual needs, aptitudes and development stage I don’t need to wade through a planning folder that is simply going to show me what staff have already told me. On the other hand, if I think children are bored and unfulfilled and I ask staff what they are doing and they tell me for example ‘whatever they want, just playing’ I might decide that a closer look at planning documents would be helpful for me. Similarly, if I see children climbing dangerously over large play equipment with little staff supervision and demonstrating little evidence that they have learnt some ‘risky play’ rules I might ask to look deeper into risk assessments and staff training records for the whole setting. I also check that staff are saying the same things – I need to know that the whole team understands and is implementing the procedures in the same way so that there is consistency for the children. R: So you said most of your inspection is observation? Yes, personally, I always spend the morning observing and chatting to staff about what they’re doing. I also like to chat to the children. I always wear clothes that I can sit on the floor in because I often end up chatting to children whilst building train tracks or looking at books. I move between groups and settle myself out of the way but where I can see what is going on – it doesn’t matter to me if an activity moves from one place to another or if children take a game elsewhere – I just follow on! I observe activities but also I observe how the setting is running – is there lots of ‘hanging’ about? What is the atmosphere like? What are the relationships like? I talk to staff about what they are doing ‘what are we learning here?’ is one of my favourite questions. I’ve observed painting activities in different places and in answer to my question I’ve been told by staff “We’re doing painting, we’re painting whatever we like” and also “We’re painting – we’re learning to use different tools to make our fingers strong ready for writing and x (Child’s name) has just started to notice the blobs of colour on his page are from his brush – so I’m really praising him for that and encouraging him to make different blobs and lines with the paint” – so you see, it’s quite straightforward to separate the stronger settings from the weaker ones! So I observe, I try to see something for all the learning and development areas – I can find pretty much all the areas in all the activities! R: What do you mean? Well, if we took the painting activity described above – I could see how the children were interacting with each other and with the staff and I could see their levels of independence, that gives me PSED. I could listen to what they say to each other and to the staff and I could assess CL in that way. I could notice how they are manipulating tools and how they are managing to move around the activity, there’s my PD. The experience of the painting gives me EAD. Depending on the way the activity went I might get some literacy or maths, or some UW. Once I have seen several activities and seen how staff support, challenge and develop children’s learning I use the grade descriptors (IH p38, 39) to look to see where my observations ‘best fit’ then my judgement for ‘teaching and learning’ is well on the way. I then need to find further evidence to secure my judgement – that might be more conversations with staff, or looking at children’s records or talking to managers about how they monitor progress and identify potential gaps. R: That’s all really helpful for our FSF members – we’ve talked about how you use the documents and also about how you observe. Next time, can we talk about the joint observation and about the leadership and management meeting? Of course
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