Ofsted have been and finish tomorrow!

[Guest]

Hi all!

We had Ofsted in today and they finish tomorrow. We are a maintained nursery class. They raised a couple of issues which I disagree with. So I am going to ask to speak to them again, but want ideas on what to say! If you agree that they have been harsh!

They said we should have baselined already - children have been in for 11 days at most, and 6 at least, as we had a few start each day. I said we mostly have with a couple of areas left, which was why we had resources outside to assess physical development, and shape jigsaws out for SSM assessments! We have set up next steps for prime areas already, and have been settling class and teaching routines, e.g. apron on to paint, painting to go on drier, etc, snack bar routines etc So I find it hard to see how we could have baselined 23 children for 17 aspects!

Also she said that there was not enough structure/expectation for their writing. Why weren't they using the Jolly Phonics letters taught in their own writing?!!!!!!! She is Early Years lead and a head Teacher! I said we will start letters and sounds games/activities as soon as the children are ready. At the moment we are playing games to develop concentration in preparation for L&S. But in any case we wouldn't want to teach letter sounds until they are securely working in phase 1, except for more able/a child who shows real interest..... Also the majority are at the mark-making stage, with no idea that print carries meaning and no interest in writing or indeed books! So we are working on developing their interest, and inspiring them to want to mark-make/write/draw etc.

What do you think? Maybe we are being slow? Not expecting enough? x

[catma]

These are my thoughts:

 

Have you shared last years progress data to show how well children do from their starting points (ie the reception children now). Have you shared the current on entry judgements - what have you gathered from your transitional discussions with settings or home? How has this been used to identify starting points? Do you have children who are atually ready for phase 2? - children who have already been with you since last year and who will complete nursery for reception next year?

 

She cannot (in my opinion) be saying you should have done something already - it is for you to demonstrate the effectiveness of your on entry assessment processes and why you do them in that way. Your HT and assessment lead should also be supporting this policy - is it in a policy actually?

 

Why is she asking about JP teaching if you are doing phase 1 - what did she see? If you are teaching PGCs then I would expect to see adults reinforcing this in activities.I think it is important to check that there is no implication that they are giving you a preferred method for your lessons - it's the impact of teaching they must be judging through the outcomes.

 

IS this a section 8 (for a good school) that is being changed to a section 5? Or were you in a category so this is your section 5??

Cx

 

 

[Guest]

We were RI. She was referring to writing opportunities - we had pads/pens/memo pads etc in Bob the Builder's Yard, and paper and a variety of mark-making tools in the writing area, as well as alphabet bunting etc. Also 'come and write a shopping list' type prompts. Our environment is print rich. I gave her last year's data showing, for example, 0% were at ARE for writing in September, but 64% were by July, declaring that to be very good progress from their starting points, and that we had significantly closed the gap ...

 

I should have shown home visit notes from Tapestry. Can do so tomorrow. Wifi intermittent over in our building. Assessment lead wants an accurate baseline, and said to have data on Target Tracker by 7th October. So I think we're doing well to have done most. Head Teacher was there for feedback!

 

No one is ready for phase 2. Very few ready for phase 1! It's an area of significant deprivation. We are building up basic vocabulary, e.g. animal names - two of my eight key children do not know pig/goat etc.

[catma]

Dont forget that leadership is judged across all leaders, but issues will have been discussed with the HT this evening and they would be fully apprised of any issues the inspection team are picking up so talk with them before inspectors i would advise.

 

When you say she was asking about not using the JP letters taught - did she see this being taught?

 

Do you have children who are still with you from last year? This will be a target group as they would be further ahead than your new entrants.IS this what she is referring to??

 

Cx

Edited September 27, 2016 by catma

[Guest]

Good idea to speak to HT first. I was going to ask her advice as to whether myself and Reception teacher should have a word. She was criticised for not all children joining in singing. And using the words respect and achieve! Inappropriate for Reception apparently.

 

JP taught in Reception, but I can't imagine ANY nursery teaching letters yet! Four of our six older ones are below many of the new ones! Three are 16-26 for speech - at stage of putting 2 words together .... They were in with a class of 37, so they made expected progress only, as we had to focus on older ones to help them be ready for Reception. We had a child who needed 1-1 most of the time, so 3 of us worked with the 36 other children. So we didn't really close the gap for them, but will this year. Our data shows they make really good progress in their actual nursery year.

 

Teaching session was not observed, nor story. Maybe they should have if they want to see more formal learning. Perhaps we should invite them in for the teaching session?

[Stargrower]

I can't be of any help but hope all goes well for you today and you manage to show the inspectors how your hard work impacts on their progress!