Ofsted finally arrived today!

[zigzag]

Well after five years and six months and two moves we finally got inspected today!! I will get my head together and will come back later and let you know our experience!!

[hali]

Well done hope it went well x

[sunnyday]

zigzag - so pleased for you - big sigh of relief I'm sure :1b

[Stargrower]

Phew, what a relief! Hope it all went well for you.

How did you move twice and not get inspected? They knocked on our door four months after we moved premises!

[Panders]

Yay zigzag, I can feel the relief from here. Hope it all went well

[eyfs1966]

Oh my....you are one of the very few that had been waiting longer than me......oh no....now i'll be on red alert every day!

I do hope it was a positive experience, and worth the wait!!

Please tell us all when you can

[eyfs1966]

i can only presume they didn't stay all that long if you were able to get online here at lunch!!

[SueJ]

Ahh Zigzag at last the wait is over - hope it all went OK for you and yes do let us know how you got on. We are still (5yrs and 11mths) waiting - perhaps they've forgotten where we are

[louby loo]

Phew.... Over before Christmas. :-) (an inspection then would be my worst nightmare)

 

Hope it all went well

Xxx

[Fredbear]

Ah Zigzag, I bet you have a sense of relief it's over whatever the outcome.

Now I hope you can enjoy your lead up to Christmas now.:)Fx

[sunnyday]

Ahh Zigzag at last the wait is over - hope it all went OK for you and yes do let us know how you got on. We are still (5yrs and 11mths) waiting - perhaps they've forgotten where we are

You wish!

[Froglet]

What a relief! Looking forward to hearing how it went.

[zigzag]

OK, we have had two previous inspections by this inspector and she also did my suitable persons interview when I became the nominated person, so we have a history and she has seen me and the group evolve. The first thing I did when she came in was thank her for turning up and the second thing I did was hug her!! Yes I really did!! Not sure she has ever had that happen before!

She had read our SEF and looked at our website thoroughly and was impressed with both. She then told me that she wanted to track our eldest child, a child on two year funding and a child we are working closely with on behaviour management. We did a joint observation of a cooking activity which went well. She then looked at the three learning journeys, safeguarding policy, Medicine book, single central record, staff qualifications. I also asked her to look at our feedback file and our forest school photo albums. All this was as well as asking lots of questions and observing everything in great detail, she did not miss a thing! We spent only 30 minutes outside due to the most awful weather and because we are waiting to return our waterproofs that were ordered from a well known early years supplier and are actually very disappointing. She was more than happy with that and did not ask about freeflow at all! In fact she stuck her head oreport commented that it was chilly and went back inside!!

All in all it was a good experience, she was very nice and very thorough. We are happy with our result and I look forward to reading our report.

I feel like an enormous weight has been lifted as I have been living with anxiety about this day for such a long time!!

[louby loo]

Sounds good :1b :1b :1b

I'd like to say 'well worth the wait'.. ..... but maybe not really :blink: - still at least you can relax now and just get back to enjoying the job without the daily anxiety of the long wait.

xxx

[Panders]

OK, we have had two previous inspections by this inspector and she also did my suitable persons interview when I became the nominated person, so we have a history and she has seen me and the group evolve. The first thing I did when she came in was thank her for turning up and the second thing I did was hug her!! Yes I really did!! Not sure she has ever had that happen before!

She had read our SEF and looked at our website thoroughly and was impressed with both. She then told me that she wanted to track our eldest child, a child on two year funding and a child we are working closely with on behaviour management. We did a joint observation of a cooking activity which went well. She then looked at the three learning journeys, safeguarding policy, Medicine book, single central record, staff qualifications. I also asked her to look at our feedback file and our forest school photo albums. All this was as well as asking lots of questions and observing everything in great detail, she did not miss a thing! We spent only 30 minutes outside due to the most awful weather and because we are waiting to return our waterproofs that were ordered from a well known early years supplier and are actually very disappointing. She was more than happy with that and did not ask about freeflow at all! In fact she stuck her head oreport commented that it was chilly and went back inside!!

All in all it was a good experience, she was very nice and very thorough. We are happy with our result and I look forward to reading our report.

I feel like an enormous weight has been lifted as I have been living with anxiety about this day for such a long time!!

 

Single central record? Can you explain what this is, may be called something different here? I've already had the same inspector twice, please please, not again - I would like fresh eyes this time, but glad it went well for you

[Amina_Hussain]

Many congratulations :1b

[zigzag]

Single central record? Can you explain what this is, may be called something different here? I've already had the same inspector twice, please please, not again - I would like fresh eyes this time, but glad it went well for you

The single central record has all staff and committee members names, address, DBS numbers etc.

I will see if I can find our template when I get on the desktop. Its great to have all vital information about every one in one place.

[eyfs1966]

I just wanted to add my congratulations.....enjoy the relief now all is done and dusted! hope you have celebrated suitably!

[zigzag]

Hi Panders this is our single central record template for you to look at.

Edit by Steve: attachment removed at zigzag's request.

 

Have just realised this one on my home computer has not been updated to DBS from CRB so be aware if you do use it.

Edited November 12, 2014 by Steve

[Joanne123]

Hi Panders this is our single central record template for you to look at.

SCR blank.xlsx

 

Have just realised this one on my home computer has not been updated to DBS from CRB so be aware if you do use it.

Hi. Thanks for sharing. Not sure if you realise but when I opened download on archives names and addresses etc are shown.

Joanne

[Joanne123]

Hi Zigzag

Thanks for sharing. Not sure if you realise but names and addresses are showing in archive section of download.

Joanne

[Joanne123]

Hi Zigzag

Thanks for sharing. Not sure if you realise but names and addresses are showing in archive section of download.

Joanne

[Joanne123]

Oops 3 copies of same message

[zigzag]

Oh heck, how do I remove that link. This was given to us as a blank document supposedly!! Please can someone remove it for me. Thank you.

[SueJ]

I messaged Steve when I did something similar and he removed it for me :rolleyes:

[Wildflowers]

We were inspected today. I advise everyone to have a thorough SEF as it helps to control the urge to want to say and explain everything on the day. Make sure that everyone knows what they need to know about safeguarding. Have solid baseline assessments / starting points established in writing. Record progress. Have all papers an inspector may want to see available, on paper or on the computer. We had a challenging day - don't know what happened to the children, so I'm exhausted... I had envisaged it being one of our great days and that I would have everything ready. (I hadn't hole punched the recently-printed recently updated policies...) I feel a bit empty. Even a little sad. Ofsted-waiting withdrawal symptoms?

[Guest]

Oh Wildflowers. You sound drained. Know you have been waiting for a while and its been stressful time!.

Get a good nights sleep - honestly, you will be relieved in the morning that it is done. You can enjoy the preparations and lead up to Christmas without checking the door every few minutes

[zigzag]

I hope you feel better about it in the morning. I have to say it did feel peculiar not to have that expectation this morning. Have a good sleep and take stock in the morning. Hope you got the results that you wanted.

Edited November 12, 2014 by zigzag

[Wildflowers]

When I saw my partner I just cried in his arms. The inspector thought it went better than I did. I felt that children, papers and I were in a muddle.... Days are different and I wanted it to be one of those great ones. Now a bath and then to bed. (But, yes, I am pleased with the result and will be able to appreciate it later. I just wanted it to be a great day...)

(Later) Need to add - it didn't go badly, from another perspective. I had the papers etc (though not filed) and had done the things I should have done.

Edited November 12, 2014 by Wildflowers

[hectorshouse]

Had my inspection (as a childminder) last Wednesday, never thought I would be able to say "lovely" and "inspector" in the same sentence but I did have a lovely inspector, my 3 children were a little more lively than normal but I preferred that option instead of them going shy and not joining in with anything. My inspector loved my Tapestry on-line journals particularly how well I could demonstrate real progress in Partnership Working with both parents and other settings adding observations and replies.

I know what others are saying about a bit of an anti climax the day after they have been but I am very pleased with my result - just waiting for it to be confirmed in writing. Agree totally with the advice above about putting lots of information in your SEF, my inspector said she had learnt a lot about the way I work before she arrived - I also had some fantastic letters written by all my current parents and lots of cards and references from past parents.