Guest Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 Hi All I am new to the forum and have been reading with interest the threads on completing the SEF. It's great that so many people have been prepared to share and upload their SEFs, although nearly all those I have seen relate to Playgroup and Preschool settings. Does anyone have an example of a Childminding SEF that they would be prepared to share? I have only been registered as a Childminder for 4 months and thought I was pretty sorted as far as paperwork goes, that is, until I looked at the blank SEF!! I have spent about 30 hours on it so far and have completed about two thirds of it. I am finding the whole thing very repetitive and you almost need guidance on the 11 page guidance document. The best guidance I think would be for Ofsted to provide an example of a completed SEF that they consider to be a good one for others to get an idea of what is expected in terms of answers. I am finding it hard to segregate my answers for sections 3 Quality of Provision and section 4 Outcomes and as far as I can tell there are 3 separate sections which ask about improvement. How many different ways can you say the same thing? DitDot
hali Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 hello and welcome to the forum - just remember you dont HAVE to do the Ofsted SEF as long as you are evaluating your provision and saying what you are doing well and what needs to be improved thats fine
Guest Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 Hi and welcome!! I'm a childminder and completed my SEF loosely based on the Ofsted version. I copied it into a word document for completion and cut and pasted into their on-line version, as I found it easier. I totally agree that it's repetitive and referred back to previous sections rather than re-write the same thing... i.e. see section X Ofsted inspector was happy with that and was just happy that I had a method of self-evaluation in place. I would imagine that it's particularly hard to complete after 4 months of minding and I'm sure that your Inspector will bear that in mind - the ones I've had over 13 years of minding have all been sensible, supportive and encouraging. Good Luck! Nona
Guest Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 Thanks for your comments, that makes me feel better about it. I don't intend to spend much more time on it as I have got as far as I can and now I am stuck on the rest. I wonder if it is better to submit a partially completed SEF to Ofsted or to just print what I have done and show it to them when they come to do their inspection.
Guest Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 I uploaded mine last September and gave the Inspector an updated paper copy when she arrived to do my inspection.... hedged my bets Nona
Guest jane707 Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Upload what you have done so far and add to it when you have reflected and made changes. You often find the Ofsted site closed for maintenance or you can't get online for some reason - if you are anything like me you will feel better if it's all on there ready for if the inspector wants to read it.
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