Ofsted Since Sept 08

[Guest]

Anyone had there inspection since September 2008 and willing to share their experience?

[Helen]

Hi Gwen,

Have you seen my first attempt at describing the Ofsted reports for the first few weeks of the statutory EYFS? You can find it on the home page. Three more to come over the next few days!

[Guest]

hi im new to forum i was inspected as childminder in october o8 and was graded good im more than happy to answer any questions thanks carol

[sunnyday]

Hi Carol

 

I'm sure you will get lots of questions!

 

sunnyday

[Guest]

Hi, we had OFSTED 3 weeks ago and can now officially announce that we got graded as outstanding! Difficulty now is maintaining that level! I'll try to answer any questions if i can. Main focus for us appeared to be safeguarding children, vulnerable children, continuation of care through wrap around care clubs and school etc. kel x

[Guest Wolfie]

Fantastic news, Kel! I'm sure we'd all like you to share the secrets of your success in more detail when you've got time - have you got any big celebrations planned or have you already held them in secret??

[Guest]

We had already planned a night out for chinese new year and the inspection fell the wed and thurs before we were due to go out on the fri so we celebrated then! its so hard keeping it quiet until it is published. it went out to parents the thurs before we broke up so not really had any comments back from parents yet. We also got outstanding for every part of the inspection for the rest of the school too.

There are no secrets to success, they couldnt have come at a better week for us really! We were focussing on chinese new year so had a fab range of activities that the children could access, children took it upon themselves to search the internet for pictures of chinese food and adding objects from around the classroom to the water to make it look like chinese food. There was a good balance of child initiated and adult led activities, ICT used frequently, enhancements in all areas etc.

Also we had our 'family fun' sessions that week, we invite parents in each term to spend a 45 min session with their child, playing or supporting thier child with an activity. Also gives them chance to speak to staff, add comments to profiles etc.

Everything just went so well! all staff, children, parents etc immersed themselves fully in the theme and this showed clearly! As I said before main focus for early years seemed to be safeguarding, vulnerable children, continuity of care, CLL, PSED.

[hali]

congratuations kellys - thats what we are now worrying about after getting ours!!! anyway hope you are still celebrating

[Beau]

Congratulations Kel!

[Guest]

Anyone had there inspection since September 2008 and willing to share their experience?

 

Hi JeannieM here

We are a large Primary school of over 600. We had our inspection just before Christmas with one week to go. It was wierd. Nothing like the three previous inspections I have had. There were three team members with one woman to look at Foundation and year one. They rely heavily on the school SEf and what the head says. They use this to make an initial opinion. The head shadowed the lead inspector and did double observations with him. The head also was at several meetings with inspectors. Quite useful I felt. Our woman wandered in and out over the two days. She came into reception at the start of the day and looked through the paperwork I had given her. I was with my class doing the all singing dancing big book input but she was obviously under a time constraint to gather as much information as she could. Lots and lots of questions. I didn't really feel observed at all which gave me the confidence to tell her what I wanted her to know. That's it: You need to be able to talk about your setting and have the confidence to say why you do things. As Foundation Stage Leader I had a meeting after school but only had 30 minutes. I could have kept her much longer. Make sure you have your data and know what you are talking about. They want basically to see what progress the children are making. If you can say where they came in and what progress they have made you will be fine. Our results do not quite meet national levels but the progress was deemed good. It is a good idea to have some information photocopied ready. I had an overview of what I felt was our effective provision.(Using Every child matters) She commented on the use of indoor/outdoor activities. The balance of adult led and CIL activities. She asked whether phonics was taught everyday but did not come back to watch. The overall summary of Foundation was about 15 lines on the report. However you are judged as one of the 6 areas on the report so you matter.