Ofsted!

[Guest]

All the best for the final day Jo - shocked to hear you're still going through it. We've been told two days - two inspectors and one HMI (inspecting the inspectors). Have been told they probably won't be able to see all the teachers (shame!!!) but they will need to see Foundation Stage They've also asked for a group of parents to go in to talk to them.

 

Please do get back with some feeback Joanne - better to be forewarned.

 

Harricroft

[Guest]

Ofsted have left the building!

 

There was only one inspector and I was told that you should expect two, she was VERY thorough but fair. We all worked hard to show her everything.

 

We are very pleased with our result but was told that it must be kept confidential until the report comes back in approx. 25 days.

 

Why are people on this site telling each other of their grading as soon as they have had the inspection?

 

 

Teri

[Sue R]

Probably because we trust each other to keep quiet!!

 

I don't think they actually tell gradings, more feedback and area results, which gives a good idea

 

Sue

[Guest]

Had the call today and Ofsted are arriving on Wednesday! There will apparently be a team of two and we have no idea what areas they will focus on. As an NQT who is not happy with their timtable I am dreading this. I have one child who screams the place down when mum leaves and another who is now upset and has started crying too.

I can barely hear myself at registration and the children are sitting with their hands over their ears! My chn are part time so that's a bonus I guess but I do feel really worried about it.

My focus is 'senses' so any fab ideas would be really appreciated. Do you think it is unwise to complete their first ever PE lesson when they are in? Just thinking what a nightmare changing could be.

[Marion]

It's hard not to worry I know but try to think positively. It's early in the year and no one can expect the children to be fully into routine.

Hope all goes well

[Guest]

All I can say is Good luck Marion, Have confidence in yourself, show them what you do well and let them know what areas YOU KNOW that need developing and that you have planned to address these.

There are also children in your class who will SHINE for you

 

Peggy

[Susan]

oh Matilda, try to relax and have a good weekend. That is most important.

The inspectors will understand how new your children are and look at how you are dealing with the issues. They willl also understand that you are an NQT. Its really difficult when you have a child who screams that much, what calms then down? Do you have another adult who could take the child out of the room thus minimising the noise and distress for the others. Is there anything that you could do to make registration less formal and more manageable?

I never expect reception children to change for PE this early in the term. Shoes and socks and jumpers off in the hall is often as much as some can manage. Play some simple stop start games to encourage spacing and listening.

 

Good luck!

[Guest]

Hi,

 

The child in question will not be moved and when tried kicks and hits out at the adult. Unfortunately, Ofsted are to be based in the classroom next to mine so they will definitely hear his screams. His brother is in the school and he came down and spent some time with him the other day and he was fine with this and stopped crying and was even ok for the remainder of the morning when he went back to his class. He was only in for 45 mins today and mum picked him up again. I thought we could build the time up gradually. Mum has little English so it is difficult to communicate. She would like to stay but I felt this might just delay the envitable as both his brothers reacted the same way I am told. It is very distressing for all the other children and I am concerned for them. Could have a class full of children crying at this rate. Would it be acceptable to allow mum to stay for the week? I am going to try and visual timetable to see if this helps.

 

Good idea about PE I may try just removing socks and shoes instead.

[mundia]

hi Matilda, we had our last OFSTED early in september and had all the worries you have, but they were interested in how we settled the children, how we involved parenst in this process, and they even came on a home visit with us. Yes we had parenst in, yes we had children crying but it was all fine.

 

I would keep your crying child's timewith you short, we often ask parenst to stay on the premises but out of sight for a short while. Plus if the family have EAL, and this is unusual in your setting, then he may well feel isolated, and that is where the older brother can really help. WE often arrange visists to the siblings during the day to keep the children reassured.

 

In terms of PE, I would do as Susan says if they are not fmailiar with undressing yet for PE, just take off jumpers shoes and socks and concentrate on safet y and routines. They probabaly wont come to se you anyway.

 

do keep us posted and please relax this wekend....

[Guest]

We got the call on Friday 16th and they came the next Wednesday and Thursday. At our school they put senior management under a lot of pressure to prove why they had made what judgements they had on the School evaluation. THe inspecotrs spent between ten to twenty minutes in each class and spent a lot of time talking to children throughout the school. THey did not inspect under 3's because we have recently had an Ofsted registration visit for them which had no major issues.

The senior managers got a lot of cross examination, the rest of us hardly anything. It was by far and away the most pleasant OFSTED experience I have been through. It seemed that the thrust was checking that management was clear about why it formed the judgements it did and that there was clear evidence for it. THey studied past planning and simply seemed to be checking that what was planned for was happening.

 

We were good overall and our new centre came out very strongly so we are very pleased. It was a shock to get it so soon into the new term but a great feeling that it's now out of the way.

 

THere was a great deal of emphasis on the 'Every CHild Matters' standards.

 

Overall if you are a front line practitioner the response in our school was : 'Is that it?'

From the managers: ' It wasn't very 'light touch' for us!'

 

So hard luck senior managers it seems that you are the main focus this time round.

[Guest]

Thanks very much for posting, it was great to read that. Makes me slightly less worried. Were you informed of their focus before the visit?

Do you know where can I find the very child matters standards? Apparently because the school results are not good the SMT have put us as satisfactory on the SEF form. The head said we therefore cannot get anymore than satisfactory as a final grade.

[Guest]

THe focus of the inspection is decided on the first morning of the inspection in a conversation between inspectors and SMT. Obviously the conversation will be around the weaknesses highlighted in the SEF. I don't know about whether the highest grade you can get is what your own evaluation is. I do know that they comment on several headings and give a grade to each one so that the final overall grade is only an average of the other judgements and the judgements are made by the inspectors NOT the SMT. It seems to me under this system that if SMT are saying something is rubbish when its actually OK, it is as bad as saying something is brilliant when it is not.

It seems to be about the accuracy of SMT judgement. I would say that if your SEF says teaching and leraning is only satisfactory then the inspectors may well spend more time observing teachers than they did in our school. THe inspection will ceratinly look at your schools areas of identified weakness but only to see if that judgement is accurate and whether the school has credible strategies for dealing with those weaknesses - ie INSET days, sending people on courses etc.

The Every CHild Matters document will be in your school but I'm sure you can download online from the DfES as a PDF. I think there might even be an Every CHild MAtters website.

There was a great deal of emphaisis of identifying the root of weaknesses down to micro detail - eg the performance scores of particular pupils.

A great deal of emphasis on reducing the whole process of education to number crunching too.

Our inspectors were big on evidence for any statement. How do you know that? Can you be more specific? In what way exactly? were their main repsonses. They also set great store by what the children say.

[Guest]

Thanks for that, I'll prepare myself for the worst and expect them to observe me alot. As an NQT I am used to be observed from my teaching practices, but it's still scary!

[Guest]

Had the call today and Ofsted are arriving on Wednesday!  There will apparently be a team of two and we have no idea what areas they will focus on.  As an NQT who is not happy with their timtable I am dreading this. I have one child who screams the place down when mum leaves and another who is now upset and has started crying too.

I can barely hear myself at registration and the children are sitting with their hands over their ears!  My chn are part time so that's a bonus I guess but I do feel really worried about it. 

My focus is 'senses' so any fab ideas would be really appreciated.  Do you think it is unwise to complete their first ever PE lesson when they are in? Just thinking what a nightmare changing could be.

38513[/snapback]

I would expect Ofsted to be well aware of the difficulties of the 'settling in' period, and surely they will be looking to see what strategies staff are using to help children settle. By the sounds of your other post you're very sensitive to the needs of the child and his family: Ofsted must give you credit for that, surely.

 

Or is that wishful thinking on my part?

 

As Peggy says, be confident in yourself and show them that you're thinking of ways to improve and try not to worry. Easier said than done, I know!

 

Good luck

Maz

[Guest]

Thanks for that, I'll prepare myself for the worst and expect them to observe me alot. As an NQT I am used to be observed from my teaching practices,  but it's still scary!

38623[/snapback]

Don't worry Matilda. The most any of our teachers was observed was 3 times. She was new to the school but the reason she was observed so much was because they were focussing on year 5 NOT because of her teaching. As we have a new centre 0-6 I was convicned they would spend most of the second day with us but they didn't. If you get observed more than once it will be more about a perceived concern in your age group they want to look more closely at. Since you are new to the school any weakness like that is nothing to do with you - they may want to talk to you about what SMT have said to you about their concerns for the year group but believe me - there is a completely different feel this time round. That was my fourth OFSTED and by far and away the least bother for teachers on the ground. And the most stressful for senior managers.

Just make sure you have clear plans with clear learning intentions.

[Guest]

Good luck Matilda - it is terrifying at the time (maybe the days before are worse than the actual OFSTED) - do as you would normally do and try not to get too stressed.

 

I can only echo what's already been said - they're really looking at the SEF form and want evidence that the SMT are making accurate evaluations about where the school is. We finished our inspection on Tuesday last week - the inspectors walked through the front doors on Monday at 8 a.m. and my new intake walked in through the classroom door at 9 a.m. Our head explained the situation and the lead inspector promised he wouldn't come to visit us until after dinner (when the new children had left). He did look in on passing and made favourable comments, but came for a proper session that afternoon. He did another ob on Tuesday morning and then talked to some of our children as he was passing en route to another class (the children were painting - he asked them what they were doing and how many legs on their dog!)

 

This was my third inspection - and definately the least stressful of all. The inspectors were thorough but very 'human'. They stressed that they wanted to help to move the school on.

 

In terms of your query about PE - I actually changed my timetable as I knew we had limited time to show what FS was all about - I debated doing PE but felt that we wouldn't be showing much (rules and limited movements) As I had two support staff in I felt this might seem excessive - especially with only half the class in - so I opted to do some K&U work - smell. I introduced the session by talking about different senses and which part of our body we used for each - then said we'd be concentrating on 'smell' today. I then took a group to do smelly pots - asking the children if they thought it was a nice smell or not, also encouraged them to think if they knew what the smell was, or whether it reminded them of anything. My classroom assistant supervised an activity in the water tray - soaps of different size, smell, shape and a sponge. The children talked about what was happening to the water and were really enthusiastic (our water tray is outside and the inspector put his hand in - fortunately it was warm). My nursery nurse was doing guided role play in the doctor's surgery and making observations. We also had as one of the free choice activities some smelly playdough - recipe curtesy of this website We had chocolate, lemon and peppermint.

 

Good luck again.

(sorry for the overlong posting )

Harricroft

[Guest]

Thanks for taking the time to post. I thought I was unlucky only having my children in a week but I'm glad they took pity on you.

I am covering senses this week too so your ideas have been helpful. Do you mind me asking what your morning timetable looked like? I only ask as my children are part time.

[Guest]

Well, they've been and gone and all is now calm!! It was a very different experience to the last inspection. they spent lots of time in the office looking at paperwork and SEf form.

We were informed of the 5/6 points they would be looking at at 4pm the day before they arrived. They visited every class teacher and spent some time looking and listening and chatting to children.

In foundation and year one they were very focused on how the children had settled, what routines we had established and were establishing. They looked at the learning environment and access to resources. They wanted some evidence from me about on entry levels and leaving reception levels.

There seemed lots of emphasis on what the children thought about everything. Our school council were seen for 45 mins! Lots of emphasis on 'every child matters' headings. Commented on fruit scheme, extra curricular activities, communication with parents, foundation stage, year 2 and 6 levels in comparison with national.

Overall we are very pleased. Still awaiting official report but had draft copy and celebrated with champagne staff meeting!!

Good luck to anyone who is next! Be prepared and organised. Take control. Show them key areas. They are only in for a short time so highlight anything you want them to see eg this group of children are working on a literacy activity and sorting objects according to initial sounds. Teacher presence!

Good luck and email or post with any questions

Jo xx

[Guest]

Good luck from me too Beau,

Just think, as from Wednesday you can relax for at least 2-4 yrs

Peggy

37511[/snapback]

I know I should know this - am I imagining it but did I read somewhere that Ofsted would be coming in every year for a care inspection or are they doing this already - sorry I know this sounds really ignortant but I am doing a critical anaylsis of the legislation relating to discrmination and how Ofsted monitor this. Or is it still on the 2-4 year cycle dependent on the outcomes of the inspections. I know they may come in earlier if a setting has had a number of changes i.e. committee, new leader/manager. A quick answer from anyone would be great - if I have to plough through the Ofsted site looking for an answer - I will never get this assignment done. As it is I have already distracted myself here for far too long.

Nikki

[Guest]

ingnortant!!!! - definition - obviously means a lack of ability/knowledge like the writer not being able to type!!!!!!!

Nikki

See I am going to do anything to get away from this wretched assignment - deadline Thursday - should I be writing this dribble - probably not!!

[Sue R]

Hi!

 

Keep dribbling, if it makes you feel better and don't worry about the typing thing - it's the keyboard!! They send them out with a mind of their own, hey!!

 

Think at the moment, as Care Inspections fall due, then settings will receive the whole shebang!!

 

Correct me (please - we're due !!) if you like!!

 

Sue