Best activities to do during Ofsted inspection?

[Runoutofideas]

Hi,
I am due my first grading inspection in the next few weeks. Just wondered what activities have worked well for during the inspection itself? I will have either 2 or 3 two year olds depending which day the inspector comes. I was thinking of having playdough out, plus sand and water outside. They particularly like water with fairy liquid in to play with, so thought that would show I was following their interests/preferences. Normal stuff like play food, dollies books etc willl be round for free play as usual but don't know if I need to arrange more than this? We would normally go out rather than spend all morning at home so I need to make sure they are all happily occupied.... How long did your inspection take? I'm thinking it'll be a couple of hours? Any help or advice gratefully received!

I had babies at my first inspection and they just played with toys, they then did an unannounced visit as I had a malicious complaint made and they watched tv! The inspector was fine as she said they were obviously very happy with me and shd understood that I was too upset to do activities, just plan s few bits and explain you usually go to the park etc, she may even go out with you! A cm I know had to go on the preschool run with her inspector.

My CM got stickers out and my two stuck them on a shaker thing they had made (beads and a plastic bottle), with sticking streamers on etc. Kept them busy, but not too potentially messy. The inspector was there for hours though! She had to leave her to it to put one of the babies to bed in the end.

A Treasure basket;
Play spaghetti (cooked spag with a drop of food colouring, it's very touchy feely and they can put it in their mouth) on a tray with a tea set;
Go out in garden show them flowers, trees, birds, etc
Ask the kids to help you wash their toys outside with sponges and cloths, or give a baby doll a bath
Set up your play room as a shop with plastic food and a till and baskets, so you can talk about fruits, vegetables, etc
Put out doctors kit and play doctors' with dolls and teddies, that gives you an opportunity to talk about measurements, body parts, weight, which one is the biggest, which one is the lightest. Put on bandages on the dolls which is great for fine motor skills.

Make the playdoh yourself and put other things in it, such as uncooked pasta, glitter, etc. It gives different shapes and textures to play with.

Prepare your healthy snacks in advance

I think that a bit of free play and a bit of organised play shoes that you have prepared yourself and thought about what you were going to do.

The inspector was here for ages, I gave her some lunch in the end as I felt sorry for her....

Mine was here for four hours, and I also had to leave her looking at my policies etc while I put babies to bed. I think they want to see a mix of free play and adult-led activity, so I would have something set up (an 'invitation to play') that the children can find as well as letting them do their thing. Wouldn't hurt to let them see you make an observation.

Thanks everyone - some great ideas! Do they normally arrive pretty early then? If not, and she takes 4 hours, I'll be dragging her along on the school run! Also, they all sleep at lunchtime - not much for her to observe there....

Mine told me to expect her by 10 on any morning during the following week. If she wasn't there by 10 then it wasn't going to be that day. As it turned out she came on the Monday. There was an awful lot of longhand writing stuff up while she was here so I wasn't needed for all of it. When she rings to tell you roughly when she's coming you can give her an idea of what your routine is. To be honest very little of what mine did was observing the children, except to see that they were fed, hygienically cleaned etc - all she wanted to look at was my paperwork and records.

ZuleikaD, was your recent inspection under the revised EYFS? May I ask how it went?

Look at how Ofsted inspects on the EYFS 2012...it is a good guide. Things have changed from Sept. You can find it on the Ofsted website

Good point well made - no, mine was a couple of months ago.

Thanks - yes I think I'm a bit of a guinea pig with one of the first inspections since september's changes.... Would be very interested to hear from anyone who has had an inspection since Sept 1st. Thanks all for your help.

I think we are all waiting to hear from those first inspected under EYFS 2012. It takes a couple of weeks for the report to be checked and then published so I take a guess end of September is when we can hope to see the first signs !!!

Good luck Runoutofideas....

I had my inspection on Sep 12th and have just received my report for approval.

I only had one mindee with me, 22 months.

I had the Happyland Street out, then went out into the garden with a box of musical instruments, then I gave him a snack, a nappy change and then we blew bubbles outside.

The inspector was with me for just over two hours, then I had to leave for pre-school pick up. She spent a lot of time on my paperwork and her paperwork and we did a joint observation. Asked me some questions about EYFS and child development and asked me some self evaluation questions.

It was my first graded report. I got "good" - it was my fourth day of minding.

If there's anything I can help with let me know.

salxxx. Eh??????

Thanks TheHamish and well done on your "good". Did they seem to be focussing on the things which have changed since sept, or was it quite general? Could you pretty much just chuck her your paperwork and get on with everything else?

Salxxx are you on some kind of one-woman mission to randomly post negative and frankly unintelligible messages about this agency on a variety of threads? What members are you talking about? And why are you posting messages repeating allegations that you appear to have no personal knowledge of?

salxx, go away or start your own thread. And please make it intelligble.

zulika, it's rude to jump in others conversations! i was not talking to you!!!!

i get it, you must work for the scam agency. you go away and don't write to me again. bye

It is indeed rude to jump into others' conversations, salxx. This conversation is between childminders about the best activities to do during an Ofsted inspection. Nobody knows what you're talking about.

Salxxx, what relevance does your grievance against the staffing agency have to do with a thread about an Ofsted inspection? Just bugger off and complain to the company involved if you have an issue, it's got nothing to do with anybody here.

Sorry, Runoutofideas, I got completely distracted there. Yes, it was quite general, I made sure I had the document "main changes to the EYFS" in my folder of paperwork, so she knew I had it there to refer to. I had made sure my policies and procedures were bang on with the correct terminology. Honestly, I didn't sleep for weeks beforehand.

I put all my paperwork in a folder and put it on the dining table. She sat in there with her laptop and wandered in every now and again to ask questions.

Do what u normally do... Why are u trying attempting to do things u dont normally? X