Individual Sef's

[mrsbat]

Well I can't sleep because of all the things going round in my head about starting in January lol so thought I would get some out

 

What do you think ofsted's views would be if I devised a simple self evaluation form for each member of staff to regularly fill in? just with things like how they think they do certain areas of the jobs, what they would like to do more of/less of, if they would like to do more training etc

 

If it would be a plus then i'd like to do it but if ofsted wouldn't really bother looking at it then i won't rush into it and give everyone more paperwork already.

[Scarlettangel]

I have no idea what Ofsted would or wouldn't like (who does??!!!!!!)

 

but I believe self evaluation/ reflection to be a big thing of late so I don't think it would hurt!

 

It would be a good skill and good practive too for your staff to be able to evaluate thier work / reflect and the use this information to possibly improve outcomes!

 

Good luck x

[denisse]

i think the first thing to do is get the Ofsted SEF done and an action plan in place. You may want to make staff SEF an action to complete in a timecale that is manageable.

 

I only do staff SEF once a year around the time of an appraisal where they evaluate how they have done over the previous year. I also have a staff questionnaire that is used on a yearly basis (beginning of the year) when I am evaluating the previous year, setting targets and budgets for the next year. This is about the running of the setting.

 

I think Ofsted will look at it, if you show them or write about it in the Ofsted SEF.

 

Good Luck!

[Helen]

I think it's certainly a good idea, but I would be wary about the frequency; if you encourage monthly/half-termly, or even termly completion, what are you going to do with all that information? If you find that the staff are making lots of requests for changes, you can't really change things that regularly to accomodate everyone's wishes, and the staff may start to think there is little point in expressing themselves if they don't get what they've asked for! Maybe just once or twice a year would be a good compromise? I only used to do this once a year, just before staff personal development plan meetings, and it worked well for us. We did, however, have a weekly staff meeting so that any minor changes that staff wanted to make, or any comments about provision etc could be freely and openly discussed. I know many settings don't have the luxury of a full staff meeting every week though

[HappyMaz]

We do our annual appraisal which is based on the job description and as part of this staff are asked to consider how well they are doing each aspect of their job and what steps they have taken to increase their knowledge and skills. Then together we can identify any other training/support/CPD which would help them further and draw up some kind of action plan.

 

When staff go on training courses/workshops they fill in a staff learning impact form which basically asks what they hoped to learn from attending the training and the 'headlines' of what they actually learned. This is done as soon as they come back from the training. Then after a few weeks they reflect on how what they learned has impacted on their practice and how they have changed what they do as a result. This then feeds into the appraisal system and makes it much easier to highlight their achievements in the previous year.

 

I want to encourage everyone to become more reflective - but I am keenly aware that over emphasis on reflection can get in the way of actually doing the job. We will be looking at a section of the SEF at each staff meeting, and also using the Index for Inclusion to reflect on how inclusive we actually are.

 

For our staff team at this stage of our development I think this is quite enough reflection!

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do - I think the key is helping staff to see reflection as a tool to improve their skills rather than a 'box ticking' exercise for Ofsted.

 

Maz

[Guest]

Agree it is a good idea to encourage reflective practice in terms of every day practice and personal professional development.

I'd like to say thyat the focus for any managerial (spl) system should be 'is this workable (S.M.A.R.T.) and will it cost effectively (in terms of time/finance) improve quality. These for me come before the question will Ofsted like it.

 

I used to have a Staff Diary available on a desk for staff to add comments in as and when, I made it myself using a binder. The page headings in the diary were based on staff 'thoughts' and actions that I wanted recorded to enable me to to reflect on the overall practice. There were two columns on each page, one for comment then one for evaluation of how the subject of the 'comment' affected the provision. The headings were;

Changes to the environment - these were major ones ie: if we changed the layout, got new large equipment etc. Effectiveness would be recorded in the evaluation coloumn.

Changes to general routine This might be 'irregular' visitors to the setting such as Dental nurse (once a year). Or for example we once changed the routine by stopping register first thing, enabling the children to go straight to play and not being stopped after all had arrrived to have to sit and say 'yes Miss'. or we changed from having story after lunch to having outdoor play etc.

Ideas for practice change an example of this was when a member of staff suggested the children wash up themselves after snack and lunch.

 

This diary helped us to see lots of things;

Were we making changes for change sake

Did we give enough time for changes to imbed before deciding whether they worked or not.

Ideas that staff had were not just voiced then forgotten in the busyness of every day, so staff got a sense of being heard and ideas considered.

The impact of change of resources / routines.

 

The completed diary also gave a sort of history of how the preschool was constantly evolving.

 

Peggy

[HappyMaz]

The completed diary also gave a sort of history of how the preschool was constantly evolving.

I really like this idea Peggy - might need to borrow this one!