Ofsted inspection; Sue Smith's childminder inspection
Sue Asquith Early Childhood Consultant asked Sue Smith, Ofsted registered childminder, to share her inspection experience.
Sue has kindly offered to share her childminder inspection experience with us. She was inspected 4th July 2024; her inspection lasted 5 hours 20 mins. Please note that all inspections are unique, inspectors may ask different questions and follow different avenues of enquiry, however, here’s Sue’s account of her inspection experience:
The learning walk
The curriculum
I was asked about how I include all 7 areas of learning within the EYFS in my planning and how my curriculum is inclusive and suitable for all ages of children that attend my setting.
I had a play tray set up as my planned activity. This was an invitation for children to play and a perfect opportunity for the inspector to observe my teaching and interactions with the children. I introduced a spray bottle and other resources to support motor skills as the children played and explored to extend their learning as it unfolded. I also provided scissors for the children to further extend their explorations as they were interested in cutting the stems of the flowers. The children recalled a time when we made dandelion honey; they chatted about this to the inspector before replicating making honey in the tray using small stones to represent some of the ingredients.
I then read two stories, both very well known to the children, using story stones to sequence the story telling.
The children cut their own fruit for snack, using child friendly knives and choppers; they explored and experimented with each utensil until they found success. The children then divided the apple and orange between two bowls and enjoyed their snack.
Other resources available on the day included a table set out with ladybird stones and home-made numbered flowers for the children to count spots on the ladybirds and match to printed numerals in the flowers, small pots, magnifying glasses, story books and information books, railway track, dolls and Duplo bricks to facilitate free flow play.
The inspector asked me why I had made the choice of toys and resources set out for the children (my intent).
The inspector's feedback and my evaluation
The inspector gave me her feedback and asked me for my evaluation too. She had observed how I communicate with the children and introduce new vocabulary. For example, I had used the word ‘woody’ to describe why one of the children could not cut some of the stems. I had used the word ‘sequence’ during one of the stores as we used the story stones; the inspector commented about how I had explained the meaning of this to the children and how I encouraged a can-do attitude. She also noted how I had explained to the children what we were going to do.
She commented about the quality of resources and the way I used them in a meaningful way to provide such a richness of education through play and how I inspired the children to be independent learners.
During my evaluation I talked about each of the Characteristics of Effective Learning, identifying how children were learning through play whilst they played and explored, actively learning through their play in the tray.
Safeguarding
There were a lot of safeguarding questions such as:
- Safe sleeping – including the safest sleeping position for babies sleeping in a cot. On the day (at the request of parents) a child was asleep in a pushchair. We discussed written parental permission to sleep in pushchairs with the NHS guidelines referring to sleeping babies in cots and the risk assessments in place to ensure the child’s safety
- FGM – I was asked how would recognise FGM, did I think that FGM could happen to anyone, what would I do if I suspected FGM was going to happen, who would I contact and whether I would discuss this with parents
- How to whistle blow
- The signs of sexual abuse and who would I contact if I suspected this was happening
Working in partnership with parents
The inspector asked questions to gather evidence about how I work in partnership with parents. For example, I was asked:
- If I have parental permissions in place and what sort of things that I request permission for
- How I welcome new families, collect information and what sort of information do I ask from parents
- How I share information with parents about their children’s learning and development
I was questioned about some of the other safeguarding and welfare requirements, including:
- How I encourage healthy eating (I provide food and lunches for most of the children)
- How I cope with food allergies and dietary references
- How I work with other professionals; one child present at inspection attends both my setting and pre-school
- How I would deal with children with disruptive behaviour and what would I do if a child had a behavioural outburst.
Sue Smith is an experienced childminder with an exceptional reputation for caring for the children in her care. To help her to prepare for her Education Inspection Framework inspection she attended one of my Preparing for your inspection webinars. Sue does lots of training and CPD as well as networking with and supporting other childminders in her area.
You can find out more about my training webinars here, I deliver live on-line webinars and there is a plethora of pay to view webinar recordings which can be accessed at your convenience.
Please keep checking the childminder hub page for childminder specific information and updates.
Please complete a contact me box via my website or email sueasquith@aol.com if you are considering a career as a registered childminder as I have a range of training options to help you!