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Today was the day!


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Hi everyone

Last week we had a visit from our improvement advisor who slated everything we are doing- the planning was wrong, learning journeys were wrong (she didn't even look at them!), our indoor/outdoor environments were wrong, our partnership with parents was awful etc. She also said we wouldn't pass ofsted without major changes! This was a vey big shock to us and left us feeling very anxious.

 

Well, this morning OFSTED turned up- to say we were worried is an understatement. But it went perfectly, she couldn't praise us enough and she was lovely! We are happy with our result but obviously can't share just yet.

She had looked at our sef and website previous and got information from there, she checked all certificates, policies, insurance certificate. She spoke to all of our parents as they arrived and said our partnership with them was fantastic and can be seen throughout children's learning journeys too. She kept us informed all the way through. I did a joint observation on my deputy with her which was fine. We chose a child for her to track, she looked at her learning journey (said they were amazing!) and asked us about her progress.

It honestly was a very stress free experience once we had gotten over the initial shock!

And just in time for us to enjoy Christmas too!

Edited by klc106
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congratulations - what a great way to end the term (and stick it to the advisor lol!)

 

Thank you for the feedback too - good to know what's happening on the day

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We were in a similar situation about 4 years ago, advisor came out slated everything and said we would be lucky if we even got satisfactory from Ofsted. We know what we were doing deep down was great and worked well for us etc and thankfully had the confidence (after the initial shock, update, stress etc) to ignore what they said! A couple of months later we got outstanding so that showed them!!! We asked for our advisor to be changed and thankfully now we don't have to have their input at all! Well done you for sticking with what you do and it paying off :-) x

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Just shows these advisors are not all they're cracked up to be. Most have set themselves up as 'consultants' because they can't manage a headship or get an inspectorate job. The so called advisor for our school referred in her action plan (for EY) to 'CLL', just shows how up to date she is...not. Hope you sent your advisor a copy of the inspection report!

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Well done Klc , I hope you will be going back to your improvement advisor and telling her those comments ! An improvement advisor should be encouraging and help you reflect not leave you feeling inadequate , so glad the inspection went well and you received so much positive feedback . :)

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It sad, scary to see this isn't an isolated thing - Unfortunately I had a similar experience with advisors not so long ago - was left feeling shell-shocked, questioning my own beliefs and values and years of experience and training...couldn't get my head around what was happening and how I could have apparently got it so wrong...felt like the whole EY landscape had changed without me knowing it!!!

I was pressured to make changes I didn't want to as everyone else in my setting took their word as gospel...that we were on our way to a 'inadequate' and when I tried to argue my case I was ignored - I was made to feel everyone held me responsible for the 'mess' they had to fix...I resisted as much as I could but they forced most of the changes anyway by getting other staff on board...

however when Ofsted came they didn't exactly gush over what the advisors had put in place ... so although we could have done better It may help me in a way - I'm slowly rebuilding and improving even more on what was working !

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