Ofsted Called Today!

[Guest]

The dreaded knock on the door today we only opened our pre-school in September. Its a terrible week for us as we have had some really sad news regarding one of our families and have been trying to get on top of our xmas things!!

To be honest they were two really nice ladies and they are calling back on Monday. They have asked questions in general, gone through my operational plan, but i was wondering if any of you have ideas what they may want to do/know on Monday, i've no experience with Ofsted. Think i feel sick Also she wants me to develop my policy regarding an allegation being made about a staff member and show her on Monday. I am a member of PLA and they have told me to order one of their publications, unless they can fly it to me it aint gonna be here in time. What procedures do you/would you follow if you were in that situation

PLEASE ANY HELP, IDEAS, WORDS OF ADVICE WOULD BE GREAT

She did say she was pleased with us in such a short space of time and we are satisfactory (is this a bad outcome?) and good in some areas

Going off to gather my thoughts and wonder if i should have really followed my heart in opening a pre-school!!!

Thanks in advance

[Andreamay]

ok calm down joanne! remember you are a new group and ofsted are there to help so take any advice they have gracefully and thank you very much and you will be fine.

I cant help you with the policy as all paper work at school but I know somebody will. so that is easily solved.

we have a complaints sheet for parents and staff to fill in and I read in the new outcomes that this is what ofsted now want.unfortunatly it is at work but again i know somebody will help with this.

Are you committee run or not as dont forget if you are it isnt you doing these policies on your own it is with the committee!

As they have already seen your paperwork then it is harder to add to but a lot can be covered in your self appraisal by stating which areas you need to look at in the future.

stay online and any questions just ask and you will be helped I promise.

remeber everyone of us has gone through it so know and understand how you feel.

Andrea

[Steve]

Hi Joanne -

Sounds like you did really well!

 

But what a rollercoaster you're on at the moment! Having only just opened it up and then having an Ofsted so soon after...

 

However, that has some advantages as well - they must take into account how young a setting you are, and it sounds like they are generally very happy with what you have achieved. Almost certainly there will be areas they will identify that you need to strengthen, but that would probably happen no matter how mature and accomplished your setting was. Don't make the mistake of being disillusioned when they talk you through these - take them as welcome professional feedback and you can then put them into your development plan.

 

With regard to a policy on allegations against staff, the best one I can come up with at the moment is this one, which is a statement on child protection with a section on what to do in the event of allegations against staff at xxx nursery:

 

I'm sure others will be able to do better however. If I were you, though, I'd consider today as a success and enjoy your weekend!

Statementonchildprotection.doc

[Guest]

Joanne, live up to your avatar and "Keep Smiling"

 

It is quite rare for a setting to get "good" across all areas, the fact that you have good in some of them should be translated as "very good".

 

The scoring system has cause a lot of debate, for example a setting that previously, under the old system was judged as Very good, was recently awarded a good under the new system- so you are really doing very well.

 

I believe it only requires 1 action point to be needed to change a "good" score to a "satisfactory" score.

 

Hope that makes sense. Try to relax over the weekend, although I do empathise that you will find this almost impossible.

 

Hope things get better for the family you are supporting at the moment, and continue to enjoy the pre-christmas madness that all good settings are engrossed in over these december weeks.

 

Let us know how you feel on Monday. Any other queries you think of over the weekend, don't stew over them just get online and ask

 

 

Peggy

[Guest]

it sounds as if you are doing really well-I think ofsted would expect to give such a new setting 'satisfactory'-which still means re-inspection in 3 years rather than one-so you can work on being 'good' when they eventually return. I attach my 'allegation against staff member' procedure if its any help-but I must warn you I haven't yet revised it in line with the recent Ofsted changes in complaints procedures. Good luck for monday and don't worry you are not expected to be perfect at thisstage-just doing your best and open to Ofsted's advice.

Allegation_of_child_abuse_against_a_member_of_staff.doc

[Andreamay]

you will need to cover other complaints not just child abuse though!

[Guest]

Hi

thanks for your replies its so nice to be able to share things with others who understand and have been through the same things, i feel a lot better with all your positive comments.

i will keep checking for new replies, have downloaded the attachments and let you all know how Monday goes

 

Thanks again from a much calmer Jo (mainly due to all you nice people and the couple of drinks i've had!! )

 

CHEERS

[Guest]

Good luck for tomorrow!! It does sound as you are doing well, so don't lose sleep tonight.

The beauty of this site is that we are all in the same boat and our wishes are sincere because we know we will soon be having an ofsted visit. Your heart has done good in choosing the job we do, so have another drink and relax!!

 

Let us know how you get on, we are all waiting to hear the news.

 

GOOD LUCK AGAIN!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

well i am gobsmacked!

i worked hard over the weekend so we were more prepared for our second day with Ofsted, because they were looking at education i checked all the planning, profiles etc went in really early to set up and then the inspector phoned at 830 to say they were not coming

she said because of the situation we are in regarding one family they thought it too insensitive to continue , and will be back in January

I was pleased in a way because it is really hard and sad at the moment, but was relieved to think it would be all over and could relax over xmas

Oh well gives me more time to prepare i s'pose

Thanks again for replies and help and will be back to let you know after xmas how we get on

Cheers

Jo

P.S wouldnt mind some comments on what people keep in their first aid kit, everyone keeps telling me different things, will need a suitcase

[Steve]

Oh, that's hard Joanne! I don't really see any point in that - your job now should be to try to put it out of your head over Christmas. That will be hard as well I guess...

[Guest]

I must admit, I was going to ask you on Friday whether the Inspection included the "Education" part, but didn't want to concern you. The reason for my question was because I have told my manager that if Ofsted turn up after the 11 week period of funding, not to allow them to do the Inspection because we are only funded to provide the FSC curriculum for 11 weeks. When I attending the new Inspection training earlier this year our local Advisory Teacher told us that if inspection is done outside this 11 week period the Inspectors can only grade at satisfactory level. Inspectors are obviously allowed to make unnanounced visits at any time, but I would make it clear that "Education" should not be considered available for Inspection during a time period when the grant is not being paid. ( of course this will all change when funding is paid for a total of 38 wks a year.

 

I do feel for you though, all that anxiety Did they give any indication how long into the new year before they re-visit?

 

Just another thought, I was under the impression that "care" and "Education" both now come under the umbrella of the 5 Outcomes as defined by the Every Child Matters legislation and that the Inspection should encompass Care, Education, Birth 2 Three matters and the 5 outcomes altogether. I am rather confused that they saw your Inspection as Care on one day and Education on the second.

I will get back to you with a list of what we keep in our first aid box. We type a list of the contents, with use by dates on a sticky label, write the date it is checked / or contents replenished and use this label to "seal" the first aid box, this is so that you can see at a glance if something needs replacing ( in case the person that has used something has forgotten to say) Our Health & Safety Officer is responsible for checking the label is secure on a regular basis.

 

Good luck for the new year.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Following on from what Peggy's just said about the 11 week period, can anybody tell me whether or not we're supposed to notify them of our term dates etc? I was looking today & couldn't find anything on this, but I may have just overlooked it as I seem to be constantly buried beneath paper these days!

[Guest]

Good question Weightman,

 

Prior to unannounced Inspections we were sent a form to complete which showed dates we were not available. I don't personally recall reading of any requirement to inform them of term dates. ( but like you and I suspect many others, I am buried in paperwork)

 

It would make sense because I am registered as full day care but only open term time only. What a waste of time and resources if they turn up during holiday periods, as they could easily assume I open 50+ weeks per year. I wonder if they have the forsight to look at previous reports which detail opening times.

 

Maybe you have to inform them if you change your opening dates

 

Peggy

[Guest]

We operate in a very similar way, Peggy, which is why I asked. We close on Wednesday but I know a fairly local school is being OFSTEDed on Weds & Thurs I think it was.

[Sue R]

Hi,

 

I'm in a Day Nursery, so open all year, but when I ran a playgroup, I'm certain it was part of our Registration that we informed SS as it was then, so presumably Ofsted now, if we changed our operating hours.

 

Sue

[Guest]

Hi Peggy,

She has told us when she's calling back, the day after we re-open in January so at least we wont wait long

 

She did point out that she will be looking at education.

 

It was quite funny really on Friday when they called, she was telling me that they were 'satisfactory' inspectors! so what with me being blonde and completely new to inspections i thought she meant she could only grade us 'satisfactory' she then told me that inspectors are also graded; good, satisfactory, or they are out of the door. She said that they are not told what they have to do to become 'good' inspectors! You may already know this but it tickled me when she said...just proves they are all only human

 

Jo

[Guest]

Ooooh, Now I've got a question to ask Inspectors, instead of them asking me all the questions. What grade are you?

Thanks for that, a new one on me ( I'm blonde-out the bottle-does that count?- and had loads of Inspections).

Yes, they do sound quite human, especially considering the reason they gave for their cancellation, bit unfair for them if they don't know their grading criteria.

 

Glad to see the pressure appears to be off for you and you can relax and enjoy the break.

 

When do you go back? I don't open again until the 9th January.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Yeah same here pre-school opens on 9th January

 

finish on Friday, then out for a drink with the girls, still working at my other school till Wednesday but then i finish there cause i handed my notice in, cant do both jobs...tooo much

 

so offically start christmas drinking .... i mean holidays on Wednesday...

 

Jo

[Running Bunny]

can anybody tell me whether or not we're supposed to notify them of our term dates etc?

44585[/snapback]

 

 

Is this not in your original Ofsted registration? There are boxes to tick about term time only, opening days/hours etc on the application form, so Ofsted should already have this information.

 

As Sue R stated, if you change any of these from your original application, you should inform Ofsted.

 

Regarding the 'education' side of the inspection - we too were led to believe that if no funded children were present you could only be given a satisfactory. However, one of our nurseries had the knock on the door on Monday and the inspector is going back in tomorrow to do the edcuation as there is only one funded girl and she wasn't in on Monday and the inspector couldn't go back until Thursday...

 

Confused Bunny!

[Guest]

Is this not in your original Ofsted registration?  There are boxes to tick about term time only, opening days/hours etc on the application form, so Ofsted should already have this information. 

 

As Sue R stated, if you change any of these from your original application, you should inform Ofsted.

 

Regarding the 'education' side of the inspection - we too were led to believe that if no funded children were present you could only be given a satisfactory.  However,  one of our nurseries had the knock on the door on Monday and the inspector is going back in tomorrow to do the edcuation as there is only one funded girl and she wasn't in on Monday and the inspector couldn't go back until Thursday... 

 

Confused Bunny!

44660[/snapback]

 

 

 

I'm confused too, although the girl is funded, she is only funded for 11 weeks

 

Peggy