Magenta Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Our EY team are doing an ECERS audit tomorrow, is this happening nationally? Our LA have said that it is to prepare for 'Enabling Environments' theme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mundia Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Not that Ive heard of magenta, what exactly are they going to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magenta Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 Its an audit of environment and staff interactions http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~ecers/ I will be doing paired observations woth on of our advisors. We got the book which is very comprehensive so not concerned. It seems that all settings in our LA are being audited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 Havent heard of it, magenta, sorry. Hope all goes well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wolfie Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 It's the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, developed by Sylva, Siraj-Blatchford, etc. - a quality assessment scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Hi Magenta, I was involved in the ECERS project in East Sussex a couple of years ago. All settings were visited (although one or two refused, I believe) and the data was stored. On the basis of the results, training was offered, and the whole thing was repeated to compare scores. I don't think we were ever informed if the training was shown to be responsible for any improvements in the settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magenta Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 ECERS audit went well, excellent in all but 2 areas! The EY advisor said Ofsted Inspectors will also have some knowledge of/training on ECERS alongside EYFS training. We found it a really useful self-assessment tool and our Unit is certainly better for ensuring that all aspects are 'up to scratch'. Our children particularly enjoy a corner that we now use as a 'relaxing' area with comfy chairs, soft toys etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wolfie Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 A positive experience for you then - well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Glad all went well. Well done. Have you seen the relax-kids stuff, just wish I had a bit more space, some space to work in would go down well let alone a space to relax in and a padded cell would be very useful at the moment too!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 We had this assessment in Kent last year and the LA are continuing to use it for settings to reflect and build on for future development. Training has also come out of the county wide results of the audit. I scored well apart from maths (which wasn't seen to fit the criteria on the day of assessment). I did find it a bit 'americanised' ( which is where it originated from) and it doesn't truly take into account the various types of settings, ie: full day / sessional,. I scored highest in the county for Natural Resources and was asked to have an open day to enable other practitioners to come and see how I did it. Other settings were chosen to have open days for the areas they scored well in. This was very useful and a good way of promoting relationships between local providers. As with all 'criteria' based assessments, it is sometimes difficult to 'score' beyond the realms of the criteria, for example, I scored a bit lower for outdoor provision because I haven't got an enclosed outdoor space ( thus this criteria excludes many settings from gaining a score in this area). However, my outdoor provision was good in the sense that I was located next to the beach, a large playing field, a brook, Church, local shops, library, garden centre & pet shop, supermarkets and local school, all of which are in walking distance and visited very regularly. Actually rated as Good with Ofsted, yet low with ECERS. Overall though I found the audit very positive, possibly because of the way it was managed, the experience was about celebrating good practice and hints/advice and tips on areas that could be imprved. It was a non threatening experience and a system that I think will be embraced by providers because there is little paperwork to maintain the ongoing assessments and improvements unlike Ofsted or the various QA schemes available. (obviously ECERS is not as indepth as the big O or QA schemes) Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magenta Posted February 1, 2008 Author Share Posted February 1, 2008 Totally agree about some elements not taking into account different types of setting. We found it useful as it was a manageable system, but certainly not as in depth as Ofsted! I will ask our EY Team if there will be some sharing good practice in our LA, I do hope so, I love going to other settings and 'pinching' ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 (edited) ECERS audit went well, excellent in all but 2 areas! Brilliant Magenta - well done! Maz PS just remembered an old t-shirt I had when was young "I'm not perfect, but parts of me are excellent!". And funnily enough I don't ever remember hearing a lewd comment! Edited February 1, 2008 by HappyMaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catma Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Primary strategy have been sharing the experience with ECERS and it is beginning to roll out informally and with no requiremnt to other LAs because it does have impact and provides a common set of criteria to compare outcomes in different types of settings against. In my LA we are going to visit Kent and explore how we can use it aross all our teams but it needs training for us first so it's not going to be a hasty deal. There' are different ECERS, the original which I think is ECERS R and the one that they adapted for the EPPE research, ECERS E. There is also a big focus on the Leuven scales devised by Ferre LAevers which is also in operation in some LAs. Equally impressive results in quality of provision and therefore outcomes for children. PNS focus on raising quality of provision currently. Cx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wolfie Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 We've been using the Adult Involvement and Child Engagement scales from the EEL project recently as part of the performance management process and that seems to be working well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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