1. Pilot inspection
Our Experience

2. Our understanding of the Framework prior to the inspection:
Revised Common Inspection Framework means that all Early Years settings, along with maintained, academies etc. providers would be judged on the basis of the same document, no matter the nature of our setting, we should be judged on the same principles. That the nature of Ofsted judgements had not changed hugely, non the less, we were aware that there were a number of important shifts of emphasis which we needed to remind ourselves of.
Our understanding of the Framework prior to the inspection:

3. Mainly:
Increased stress on the importance of leaders work in creating an ambitious culture, ensuring good safeguarding procedures and providing a broad and balanced curriculum
Whether or not children are making good progress being crucial
Parents being able to compare the Ofsted judgements of different Early Years settings
Key shift for our sector is away from a ‘meeting the needs’ judgement towards a ‘teaching’ judgement

4. As you know: Previously Early Years judgements were made on-
overall effectiveness and performance in three key areas:
How well settings met children’s needs
Contribution of setting to children’s wellbeing
Leadership and management
As you know:

5. We were expecting to be judged on overall effectiveness on the new judgements:
Leadership and management
Quality of teaching, learning and assessment
Personal development, behaviour and welfare
Outcomes for children (3 new judgements these judgements are the same as those used for schools)
The pilot

6. Prior to the telephone meeting:
Things we did to get the inspection off to a good start:
We made sure that public facing facts and figures about our setting were up to date
Had all our paperwork organised prior to the call i.e. how many children on roll, how many staff did we employ, qualifications, how many children accessing 2,3 and 4year old funding…
An emphasis on this call being an opportunity to build trust, get us on the right foot so to speak, prior to the inspection.
Prior to the telephone meeting:
It’s my understanding that in a real inspection, you would be asked to inform parents about the inspection prior to the inspection. However, in the Pilot we were not asked to do this! So I am unable to comment on this.

7. The Telephone Meeting As expected:
The inspector asked to speak to the Manager and then introduced herself and informed us she would be visiting the next day
She asked how many children we had currently on roll
How many children under 2, how many 2,3,4 year olds
How many 2, 3 and four year olds were currently accessing funding
How many children with SEND
How many staff and their qualifications
The Telephone Meeting

8. Eve of the inspection:
Held a team meeting, the purpose of which was to provide an opportunity for any of the team to ask questions and for us all to share our thoughts on how we would want the day to run, which included how we deployed the team on the day.
How we would create the environment to showcase the effectiveness of what we do, and how we would best demonstrate our understanding that teaching and play in the early year’s are not separate things.
Made sure there were plenty of chocolates/fruit in the staff room
My main role at this meeting was to emphasise that play is a source of learning opportunity, so just do what you do, your all brilliant, that the inspector will speak with them individually, and that this was the teams chance to showcase their ‘teaching’ skills, and knowledge from training.

9. She explained how she would conduct the inspection:
The inspector arrived, her identity checked by the receptionist and the inspector was signed in
Shown to the office where she was able to place her personal items and when I was introduced to her.
The inspector thanked me for the information she had received the day before and that she had looked at our website.
She explained how she would conduct the inspection:
Day of the Inspection

10. Checked DBS Public liability insurance Staff qualifications
CPD evidence-safeguarding training certificates, first aid certificates
Staff professional discussions appraisal notes in-house training
Children’s registers
Safeguarding policies and procedures -including how we record accidents and incidents, medications policy, outings policy.
Absenteeism policy
Concerns and complaints
Checked

11. Take a tour of the setting/learning walk when I could introduced her to all the team
Spend time in the rooms talking to staff and children, looking for evidence of teaching being effective
Joint observation
feedback
CONT.
As the inspector was listening and looking at our systems, this was a great opportunity to provide evidence, for example, explaining how we support staff in their CPD and how we did that, how we update the teams knowledge on going re Safeguarding, our transparency and communications with parents to support parent partnership, how we used our cohort data to support the evaluation of children’s continued development and learning, how we relay this progress with the children’s parents etc.

12. The tour
This was the opportunity for the inspector to see the team in practice, and for me to contextualise what was happening before us, and for the team to get to know the inspector, prior to her speaking with them later on.
The inspector was friendly and commented positively, for example, ‘I love the library area’. ‘Children seem confident and are engaged’.
During the tour she asked me how many children in the room (pre school room) were 2, 3 and 4 year funded. She then took some time to shadow and make note of a funded 3 and 4 year old.

13. CONT.
After the tour the inspector went back upstairs and made some notes.
She then asked about our pupil premium strategy and evidence of how we might spend pupil premium to support the individual child’s needs. I showed her previous evidence of this, as at the time of inspection we did not have a funded 2 year old on roll.
This was an opportunity to share how we come to make decisions about how we support children’s individual needs, decide on what we spend funding on etc. i.e. through regular pedagogical meetings, by making regular observations and assessing children’s progress

14. Joint observation
This was a twenty minute activity, the purpose of which as you know, is to come to the same conclusion as to the quality i.e. strengths and weaknesses of the activity observed.

15. Her own time with the team and children:
The team reported that the inspector asked questions about :
British Values i.e. how do you feel the setting promotes British Values?
What are the signs of a child being radicalised?
Who would you approach if you had a concern about a child.
What would you do if you suspected a child was being abused?
Their understanding of FGM.
What are the signs of emotional abuse?
How does your teaching, what you do make a difference to children’s learning?
How are you supported in your professional development?
Her own time with the team and children:

16. In summary The inspection was over a period of about six hours
Many aspects of the inspection felt the same
There was definitely a key shift away from meeting the needs to providing evidence of ‘effective’ teaching
The inspector spent ‘lots’ of time with the staff and children, asking questions
The questions the inspector asked, were asked with an expectation that ‘all’ staff should know the answers
In summary