Phoebe123 Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Hi everyone, Has anyone had experience of using these self-assessment tools? I am very interested in finding out more. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 yes our borough did ecers a couple of years ago now. It is something i have thought about reviewing again since but just don't have the time at the moment. Our lea advisors were the ones doing the audit as they had had the training (although i think you could do it yourself as long as you are honest with yourself and read all the information given). Why are you thinking about doing it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoebe123 Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 Yes, I am looking into it as a friend mentioned it last week and is doing it in her nursery. I had not heard of it before, but think it would be helpful for all of us to contribute towards improving practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 I've both had it 'done' to me and was one of the auditors mentioned by finleysmaid. We were trained for five full days to undertake the audits, and in the gentle art of feeding back to the settings about their strengths and areas for development. ECERS and ITERS provide a very structured way of auditing your provision to highlight what you are already doing well and the areas of your provision that need a little more support or development. What I like about it is that the scales are very clear - once you have identified the score for each area you can clearly see what needs to be done to improve your score the next time. There may be disagreements between settings and the auditors about what each given scale point 'looks like' in practice (which is why there's a minimum of five days' training) but generally the people I audited were pleased with their results and found it a helpful way of reflecting on how effective their environment is in supporting children's learning. I loved doing the audits - it is a great way to see other provision and borrow ideas that you can see are working well. It also helped me to identify where my own setting needed to develop and because I had been trained to do the audits, I was pretty accurate in predicting the score we were likely to get. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pimms o'clock? Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Me too, everything Maz said above :1b It is also helpful to do mini audits of specific areas, see where you are and look at what you need to do to get higher grades. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 I agree, Pimms o'clock? I use the scales with my Foundation Degree learners for specific bits of their provision - really helps them to focus on one aspect and reflect more deeply. This is all kind of making me think maybe I should investigate a new career as an ECERS auditor! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froglet Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Our LA ran courses about using ECERs so while not trained as full auditors/assessors we do use the tool for our own provision. As mentioned above we don't use every single scale, although we did do lots of them when we first started, but we do pick different areas to focus on. Some will be very specific to Early Years some will tie in with what's happening on our school development plan. I like the very specific nature and how it is very clear what you need to do to improve. I found it highlighted some areas I'd never thought of and reminded me of others I knew about but needed refreshing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 humm you free for an audit Happy Maz? what are you charging?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoebe123 Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 Hi all Thanks for the positive responses - makes me even more enthusiastic to look into it. I have had a look at the website and it is all quite clearly explained. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseketeer Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Not seen or used either...sound quite interesting though, we have used the good & outstanding framework descriptors to evaluate whether or not we fully meet, kind of meet, or need to do more to meet....which was a useful exercise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 mmm i have mentioned Ecers before, am not a fan, find it too narrow especially when your a packaway setting i find it too old fashioned, not inline with current thinking for example elizabeth jarmin thinking ( which i love) i think there are other more effective ways of evaluating your setting, and its American sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 actually suer that's really interesting ..i am very EJ in my setting! and we got one of the highest scores in our area! i do think though that if the auditers have been trianed properly they can adjust the framework to match your circumstances. I do think tough that you are right about some of the old fashioned elements and the Americanisms annoyed me too! but there is an additional piece of paperwork for english setting i think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 i think im a fan - want to do the training but having a look they do concern me a little one of them says have sand/water available once a week???????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 I don't have the scales to hand hali but from memory when we were auditing there had to be sand or water out every day, either inside or outside. Happy to be contradicted though - my memory isn't what it once was! :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froglet Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 That's my memory too Maz - I have the scales somewhere at home - if I find them later I'll check! I| seem to remember that lots of the statements have a 'bare minimum' statement and then the expectations get progressively higher. So sand/water available once a week might be the minimum - to achieve the excellent rating it might be both sand and water available every day with freely accessible (labelled!) resources that children can choose from to enhance their play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopeytg Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 I had a bad experience recently with Ecers - our LA use it as a way to judge us for NEF - although a useful tool to help you audit your setting in our area it is a must and is far too rigid - it is an American concept and open to interpretation. We have beautiful bespoke storage units that hold 6 clear plastic boxes each - we thought perfect - the children can see whats in them, get them out themselves etc - but no - for Ecers the box is too big so we scored 1 for furniture!! Sorry still smarting from our audit - got a brilliant report from Ofsted and a really bad one from Ecers??!?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 we also scored highly, but what annoyed me was th counting of x number of soft toys out, small world alongside construction (i find this to prescriptive and prefer my children to move stff around the setting as they see fit not what i do) nt enough books would need another rack to meet the needs. I do not have sand or water inside but we offer excellnt outside free flow with both sand pit large enough for 10 children to play in. I have the most natural environment but they wanted me to put items in a basket outside. Why??? children can find these if they want them they wanted more of everything ever heard less is more and besides all this, I put a great deal of thought into my packaway and it takes me an hour and a half to set up each morning i am not bringing more stuff out I think we are fine thanks we evaluate and reflect all the time using our well being and involvement of which i am a huge fan and ofsted agreed and gave us outstanding sorry to rant just a big bug bear of mine, having said this no experience of ITers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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