2 Days Late & 3 Yrs

[Guest]

Thursday I had an 'appointment' with an Ofsted Inspector to discuss changing registration details (add Holiday club)

 

She didn't turn up ( letter clearly stated 10am Thurs 8th June)

 

I rang to find out where she was and was diverted to 'an inspectors' phone line, left a voice mail message " Hello, if you are lost, ring.....and I'll direct you to us"

 

My daughter (works for me) later took the return call, the Inspector denied any knowledge of the appointment, said " We wouldn't have an appointment, you are due an Inspection, you are on our list, by the way is your SEF done" ( no, it's actioned for end of term, and I was up untill 1:30 am getting all the stuff ready for our appointment today, so going back home to bed)

 

MONDAY 2 DAYS LATER ( 3 yrs after my Education Inspection was a "failure" should have been back 2.5 years ago )

 

They arrived today not to discuss Holiday Club but full 2 day Inspection.

 

They have spent most of day in kitchen, where laptop is plugged in, both together. Why one can't observe in play area while the other types on the laptop I don't know. They missed story, circle, mat/group time.

 

I'm the owner and I asked them what their Inspection plan was, timetable etc. so that staff could be deployed properly. They didn't have one.

 

They initially wouldn't tell me when their second visit would be. Apparently this is un-announced as well. Later in the day I mentioned that I am at training tomorrow. ( £65 cost if I don't attend) Guess what, second day of Inspection, they then told me is tomorrow. They won't tell me when feedback is going to be "I have to check my diary" she said.

 

I said I want to know so that I can arrange my EYAT to be present. She said she would phone me tomorrow.

 

Overall the Inspection went well, basically because they spent 85% of the time in the kitchen tapping on their laptop.

 

I feel bad because I can't be there tomorrow to support my staff and cover when they call staff into the kitchen to discuss paperwork etc.

 

I think feedback will be friday. So will let you know how we get on.

 

It's my Wedding Anniversary today, so going out to relax.

 

Sorry for the ramble.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

What a c0ck-up on their part. They sound like a right bunch. Infact, it's been a mess from start to finish - and these people get £40,000+ thousand per year!!

 

Enjoy your anniversary, and I hope that you manage to take something away from your course, without thinking about what is going on at work.

 

Fingers crossed for it all, Peggy x

[Guest]

I Hope it goes well Peggy.

 

congratulations on your Anniversay, how many years is it?

Have a lovely evening!!! Just enjoy yourself and have a few drinks

 

P.S good idea about the fire practice, that did make me laugh!!!!

[Guest tinkerbell]

What a day Peggy.

Hope you are enjoying yourself this evening.

Fingers crossed that all goes well at school.

Tinkerbellx

[Guest]

What a c0ck-up on their part.  They sound like a right bunch.  Infact, it's been a mess from start to finish - and these people get £40,000+ thousand per year!!

 

Enjoy your anniversary, and I hope that you manage to take something away from your course, without thinking about what is going on at work.

 

Fingers crossed for it all, Peggy x

58686[/snapback]

 

 

The course is for my Fostering "Drug Awareness", If I knew what to do with one I might think about having a spliff to steady my nerves ( maybe I will learn tomorrow )

 

Peggy

 

£40,000K a year

[Guest]

What a cock-up, they can't say anything bad about you Peggy you are wonderful and I expect your nursery is too!

Happy Anniversary and I hope that your post was therapeutic, have a glass of wine for me too please, my assessor is in tomorrow and I am always nervous so i am going to bed early to lie awake for hours going over morning routine and planned activities.

Let us know how it goes.

[Guest]

I Hope it goes well Peggy.

 

congratulations on your Anniversay, how many years is it?

Have a lovely evening!!! Just enjoy yourself and have a few drinks

 

P.S good idea about the fire practice, that did make me laugh!!!!

58687[/snapback]

 

 

7 yrs married, but he was my childhood sweetheart at age 14 yrs, he joined the Army for 22 yrs and we got back together when he came out.

 

I expect to see your fire record attached tomorrow evening. Don't feel too lonely being the manager, although mine will feel lonely tomorrow without me.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Hope it all goes well. I feel very frustrtated at Ofsted, too.When we had our inspection three weeks ago, the lead inspector visited my class during child initiated, which he said was satisfactory, but he thought it should be more directed. He didn't talk to any children, look at any formal lessons/work, but only gave FS satisfactory overall. This was because we don't have any baseline assessment data other than the profiles (whiich have been moderated). Our authority don't require any other asessment except the profile but he wouldn't accept this.

 

We will make sure now that we put something in place.

[Guest]

Congratulations on your anniversary Peggy.

We'll all be thinking of you and your Group this week. How come the big 'O' is there for 2 whole days?Is that mandatory now? or is it different for different types of setting? Our last 'O' was 2 full sessions (2xhalf days) we're a Pre School by the way.

[Guest]

Why is it that any talk like this about Ofsted leaves me feeling decidely sick!!!!!!!!!!????????

 

OMG I just know I am going to go to pieces, I just know it. Think you've handled it really well though Peggy. You'll certainly remember this anniversary won't you!

 

Good luck and hope all goes well for you and your staff

[Guest]

I hope you had a lovely evening Peggy, (presuming you will not read this post until tomorrow as you are spending time with your husband on your anniversary tonight)

Oh - reality check - we are talking about an EY practitioner - so probably not! Please go and have a lovely, relaxing evening with your husband - well as relaxing as you can knowing THEY are back again tomorrow!

Wishing you VERY, VERY, VERY good luck

[Rea]

Peggy, I'm a bit surprised that you appear confounded by anything Ofsted can do or say. After my own experiences, and reading those of other people on here, I have to say that if they flew in on the back of a hippogriff I'd merely ask them to tie it next to the pumpkin patch and then invite them in

 

Have a lovely evening with hubby

[hali]

happy anniversary peggy and good luck, fingers crossed for you....

[Deb]

Good luck Peggy, you'll be great, if you don't there's no hope for the rest of us!

 

I'm fed up with jumping through hoops, we aiming for a satisfactory anyway, we know we're good!!!!

 

Hope the rest of the inspection goes well. Do let us know how you get on - with the inspection I mean

 

Deb

[Guest]

All the best, Peggy. It must be difficult not being able to be there, but I'm sure you've equipped your team really well & they'll be fine. Sorry, I saw this a bit late but I hope you've really enjoyed your anniversary!

[Guest]

Hi Peggy

 

Just wanted to add that I will be thinking of you this week and I hope you had a lovely anniversary evening.

 

Take care

Lou.

[Guest]

Dear Peggy,

Not been on for ages - busy studying - hope you had a lovely time tonight and perhaps you could try and spliff tomorrow!!!

Well, they do seem to be going against what they said they would do - I thought it was looking at the practice and looking at areas for development etc. This doesn't seem to be happening here. Hope it all goes ok - beginning to send me into a cold sweat as sometimes I don't think I am ready.

Let us know how it went - I will check in on Friday

Nikki

[Guest]

Hi Peggy

 

As someone addicted to reading all the wonderful advice and good practice on this Forum. I cannot believe for one minute that OFSTED could find fault with your setting!!

 

The advice you give, the ideas and resources you share are ALWAYS of the very, very best and obviously come from someone totally dedicated to early years. As your setting must be of the highest quality, if the inspection doesn't find this to be the case it will have failed the children in your care in some way.

 

I always respect your views and enjoy reading all your postings - they reveal a very knowledgable, caring person.

 

Congratulations are due to you whatever OFSTED may say.

 

Monica

X

[Guest]

Congratulations on your wedding anniveresary - hope Ofsted didn't put too much of a damper on it! All the best for the rest of the inspection.

 

Harricroft

[Guest MaryEMac]

Hope that you had a lovely anniversary evening with your husband Peggy.

Those two inspecters sounded like a right pair !!!!! Hope that it all goes well with your staff today and that you enjoy your course. Keep us posted.

Best wishes Mary

[Guest]

Peggy I can't believe you will be any thing other than outstanding - I have been quite addicted to this site for well over a year now and your advice and comments are just brilliant and sooo helpful. By the way, now is a good time for me to say a very big THANK YOU for all your comments etc!

 

Let us know how you get on.

[Smiles]

I'm sure your Inspection will go well Peggy - youalways give so much support to others on the site.

I'm surprised the Inpector didnt tell you when your second visit was or when they would do feedback. I have to say I feel we were very lucky with our inspetor as she did all of these things - spoke with all te staff at length , children and parents and asked to speak to a comiittee member.

She did arrive unannounced the first day - but told me at length how the inspection would go - sat in on story time with a little girl on her lap, observed all the activites she even gave a list of things she hadn't seen and would like to see the next day if possible - all in all I think I got off lightly.

 

 

Happy Anniversary

Smiles

[Guest]

Thank you all for your kind words and praise.

 

This morning I managed to see the Inspectors before my training, but they had gone before I returned to preschool after the training.

Staff feel that it went quite well today. The main feedback from staff was that the Inspectors were both very nice people and the experience was quite relaxed.

 

On Monday at one point we had 9 adults in the preschool with only 19 children

2 Inspectors, our EYAT ( pop in visit to give us some resources), our Kitemark mentor (to collect work from me and to do an observation, which she re-appointed for another day and kindly excused herself) 4 staff, 1 parent helper, and me. As you can imagine this totally changed the dynamics of the day, some of the children asked, "who is she, what is she doing, is she coming back, why is she here? etc"

 

The weather was great so lots of outdoor activities and a walk to the local shop to buy vegetables, plus a quick visit to the library, was enjoyed by all.

 

The only thing they seemed unhappy with is the 'role' of my member of staff who has learning difficulties, and they talked about how I should be doing more training for another member of staff who is not qualified, (she only started working for me 4 weeks ago). This is second hand info from my manager but from what she said it appears that expectations to 'do the job' is that all staff are knowledgable of the FSC and basically this is only achieved if they are qualified. How this affects the outcome I won't know until feedback, which is not until Monday

 

I think it's along time to wait for the feedback and I'm going to start another post to see how long any of you have had to wait for feedback meeting. My previous experience is that feedback is at the end of the second day.

 

So, more info on Monday night.

 

Peggy

 

Peggy

 

 

 

 

 

What a cock-up, they can't say anything bad about you Peggy you are wonderful and I expect your nursery is too!

Happy Anniversary and I hope that your post was therapeutic, have a glass of wine for me too please, my assessor is in tomorrow and I am always nervous so i am going to bed early to lie awake for hours going over morning routine and planned activities.

Let us know how it goes.

 

 

I didn't sleep well last night, imagining how activities would go in my head, what I would say / do with the children and I wasn't even going to be there (doh ), so I know what you mean.

 

Peggy

 

Congratulations on your anniversary Peggy.

We'll all be thinking of you and your Group this week. How come the big 'O' is there for 2 whole days?Is that mandatory now? or is it different for different types of setting? Our last 'O' was 2 full sessions (2xhalf days) we're a Pre School by the way.

 

 

We have a 2 day Inspection because although I'm called a 'Preschool', I am registered as full day care ( open more than 4 hrs per day).

 

Peggy

[Guest]

I hope you had a lovely evening Peggy, (presuming you will not read this post until tomorrow as you are spending time with your husband on your anniversary tonight)

Oh - reality check - we are talking about an EY practitioner - so probably not! Please go and have a lovely, relaxing evening with your husband - well as relaxing as you can knowing THEY are back again tomorrow!

Wishing you VERY, VERY, VERY good luck

 

 

We went out for a quiet drink, I found it really difficult not to talk about Ofsted and Hubby was very tolerent knowing I needed to 'talk things out my head'. He then said "No more work talk after 9pm, that worked for me, so we then talked about our wedding day with our local pub landlords, came home, had a nightcap ( Rum coffee), then........................

 

I went into my office to turn off the computor, my hand hovered over the mouse to direct it to 'my favourites' ( FSC Forum at top of the list) and I verbally spoke out loud to myself that It would not be very thoughtful of me to go 'online' on my anniversery eve and quickly guided the 'mouse' to 'shut down' (phew, I am a controlled addict ) then.....................

 

Went to bed .................

 

Peggy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peggy, I'm a bit surprised that you appear confounded by anything Ofsted can do or say. After my own experiences, and reading those of other people on here, I have to say that if they flew in on the back of a hippogriff I'd merely ask them to tie it next to the pumpkin patch and then invite them in :wacko:

 

Have a lovely evening with hubby

 

 

I should know better now, having had what can only be described as a 'complex' relationship with all things ofsted. It's just that there is so much riding on 'their' decisions, which we cannot negotiate at feedback. I think this experience will be the best so far.

 

Apparently today when the children went to the local shops, the Inspector 'popped' into the pet shop, next door to the shop the children were in, to buy a dog basket, quote " I can't let that bargain go". She also read the children a story when they went into the local library.

 

So, when they come back in for feedback on Monday, I shall ask if her dog was happy with it's present.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Janice, that's why I'm getting out!!!! Please, please, please don't let ofsted arrive before the end of term!!!!

 

It's just so wrong. £40.000+ a year to come in and make judgements from the kitchen!! Just about sums everything up really.

 

I earn £30.000 less than them!! but I know I have always done my job well and to the best of my ability, with passion, drive and enthusiasm AND have made a difference to lots of children's lives - don't think an O inspector can have the same sense of satisfaction.

 

Hope everything went well Peggy!