petition against the early years foundation stage for childminder and anyone else that is concerned about this

[ubel1]

Childminders and all other childcare workers please fill in the petition against the EYFS.
As a childminder I am really worried about the effect of the eyfs on the children I look after and the extra workload for me. The website is openeyecampaign.wordpress.com/open-eye-petition/

I think its a good thing and if you are doing paperwork for birth to 3 already the changes are minimal I too am a childminder caring for 6 children under the age of 3 (with an assistant) and dont find the paperwork at all time consuming. The trick is to be organised. I gained an overall outstanding at my last inspection so must be doing something right. It really pees me off when people jump on the,Oh My God more work to do ,bandwagon. Maybe the EYFS and the new fees will weedle out the people who shouldnt be doing this job in the first place. Gone are the days when it was just a way of making a few pounds whilst you stayed at home to look after your own children its now a 'proper job.'

I know some fantastic childminders who are considering stopping c/m because of EYFS. One already stopped taking pre-schoolers due to Birth-to-3.
I also know of parents who want childminders to have the option of being home-based care with the same ethos as a child being in their own home and not a 'nursery at home' situation.

once you understand the EYFS its really easy its what were doing already but less!!!

dont panic there will be loads of help

This has been discussed on other threads
here and
here
Some people do have concerns.

I don't think that the paperwork will be minimal, in fact my childminding group leader showed me a book that they were given at a group rep meeting and we will be expected to plan every single activity and also to write an A4 size sheet about what we are doing, it is alright for people like itsachallenger to say that it won't be difficult she has an assistant, but most childminders work alone and while they are doing paperwork who is watching the children or playing with them. And as for weedling out bad childminder that would then include everybody in my childminding group. They are certainly not bad childminders, in fact most are graded good and one is graded outstanding, most of them have 20 years + experience in childminding. No we are not bad childminders but we are certainly not sheep and follow along everything the government throws at us.

I had a similar discussion with my ofsted inspector yesterday, she said that there would be a lot more paprework/planning/assessing etc involved than we do at the moment. This is in stark contrast to the briefing meeting that I went to a few weeks ago where we were basically told that if you are using diaries for mindees, then you won't have much more paperwork to do. The inspector then went on to admit that as I'd been to the briefing meeting then I'd know more about it than they do .

I'm in ubel. I'll sign, although I intend to be out of CMing before September. Paper work and rules of Ofsted have ruined a wonderful job for me.

BTW, I'm not Outstanding because my paperwork isn't up to scratch and I couldn't give a flying f! I do this job to play with and care for children, not fill in diaries stating how many times my mindees have poo'ed or had a sip of water! And I will not explain to anyone, by way of a form, what I've been doing all day.

I didnt say anything about 'bad childminders' I merely suggested that if you can't or won't do the work then get another job! Also I do all my planning etc on a Sunday when I have no assistant it dosent take long, I also write my daily diaries whilst the children are having a nap in the afternoons(yes,all sleep at the same time)My weekly sheets to take home with them on a Friday complete with photos are done on a Friday either whilst the children are occupied with an activity or sleep time or just as and when I can manage it, but it gets done. I did all of this when I didnt have an assistant and cared for 4 babies (with a variation)so it can be done. I am actually working Birth to 3 and EYFS at the same time and it really isnt that time consuming. A little effort and a lot of organisation goes a long way.

well said MaureenMLove totally agree with you there

i went to the briefing last saturday,

i agree with lottiesmummy, it seems fairly straight forward, i am new to minding and i am keen to be as profesh as possible, but my mind goes slightly blank when it comes to putting my ideas to paper

how do the weekly sheets work... i didnt get on with the diary that i started, and neither did the very busy mums of the children i mind for. But i am keen to have some form of diary, can anyone give me some guidance emails welcome lol [email protected] as i have no idea how i found this page

i think once everyone gets used to this eyfs it will make life easier, as everyone caring for a child will be reading from the same book, schools, minders, after school care etc, there wont be the them and us feeling!!!

I must say I don't see it will much more than what I am already doing with birth to three. I have really enjoyed the briefing sessions and find it quite easy to use. I also do all my planning on a Sunday and it takes no time at all with my feet up and a cup of tea! I think it will be a massive shame if good childminders start giving up just because of paperwork.....

I certainly do not intend to do any paperwork at weekends, Saturday and Sundays are purely for my family NOT for paperwork. I too do not agree with the amount of planning etc, we are not paid enough to work etra hours. I agree with maureenmlove, parents choose us for the homely atmosphere, one of my parents took their child out of nursery because they were spending less time with the children doing - guess what - observations and assessments! She chose me because I take children out, we go on walks etc, we do cooking which covers both science and maths and we do things like festvals (Divali,Chinese New Year, Christmas etc) to extend their knowledge of the world. I'm doing a theme about life cycles soon, we'll be going to collect some frogspawn from a pond and watching the tadpoles grow before returning them to the pond before they grow into frogs. This is the advantage we have, we don't have to plan much, we just go and enjoy ourselves!Children have plenty of testing at school, let them play!

I fully agree with mumtoluke. I will not do any of the work needed at the weekends or in the evenings as that time is my family time, my family suffer enough already due to the amount of extra work like courses that I have to do in our family time.

I curently work from 7.30 until 6pm. The children in my care do not all sleep at the same time (would be very convenient if they did but I work around the childrens needs not my desire for them to sleep at the same time). During this time I have on some days anything up to 6 school runs (all on foot as is quicker). I go to various groups 4 mornings a week and play/entertain the children during the afternoons, at this time I care for a very inquisitive 17 month old who I cannot take my eyes away from for a minute. Somedays I don't even get time to have any lunch or go to the loo, how am I supposed to pull in the extra work needed? and besides which none of my parents agree with this foundation stage thing, they just want the children to play and enjoy themselves.

Sorry to highjack, but my experience of Ofsted or indeed all government bodies is to keep those idiots (who cannot find a proper job) in work themselves, trying to control someone else's life, to justify their own position.

None of this is about helping or making the child's time more enriched, through play and discovery. Tests and paperwork never have been and never will be. We are the only country in Europe that follow these worthless notions. Whos says it's useful...the people who want you to fill in the forms. No one else!

I think it's bureucracy gone mad!The parents of the children I care for,and all other childminders in my area think this is taking things a step too far.I'm from Scandinavia where somthing like this would not even occur,as the most important thing there,is providing the children with a safe,warm and happy environment in which they can thrive,none of this nonsense created by penpushers.
How are we going to attend these courses?Ask the parents to take time off work?(yeah,right),give up the 2 days we get off per week to enjoy with our families?And for what? No wonder more and more childminders are thinking about leaving the profession.
I have enough paperwork to deal with as it is,come on!!!!

By the way,itsachallenger,you must be superwoman,mustn't you?Or not have a life outside work.Well, the rest of us do!

Yep Superwoman thats me. I am available to work 7 days a week 24 hours a day but do have a life, thank you very much for wondering, but rest assured I do. I also represent my areas childminders at regional level as well as being heavily involved locally. I am exceptionally well organised and have a social life as well. So if that makes me superwoman then so be it. Ofsted thought so as well and thats how I got an overall 'outstanding' and got to be finalist for Childminder of the Year 2006. So there!

Should have mentioned that itsachallenger and tigersmum are the same person.

well done tigers mum, it nice to know somne of us are here to excel and meets kids best needs also.congrats.

At last!Someone on my wavelength.

Three Cheers for tigersmum!

I refuse to do extra paperwork and I also refuse to do a teacher's job when that is not what I am or want to be! We do not earn teachers' wages - nor do we have the back up of the school set up - we're individuals!

I trained to be a Registered Childminder to care for children and encourage them in a home setting - not a school or nursery.

The EYFS is surely going to encourage the resurgance of unregistered, uninsured and untrained minding practitioners! What good is that to anyone?

Tigersmum - how are you able to have 6 under 5's. I thought even with an assistant you could still only have 3 unless your assistant is a registered cm too. I may be wrong though!!

There are 3 days left for you to sign the petition. Please note, the petition is not asking for the EYFS to be scrapped. Instead, it is asking for it to be downgraded from statutory to professional guidelines and for the more contentious of the learning and development goals to be reviewed.

If you are still not sure about signing, the OpenEYE group present their case against the EYFS in this short video

Well my certificate says I can so I do and that includes 2 under1's.