Cm club - I'm seriously thinking about giving up in the next few years :(

[LoveMyGirls]

I really don't want to, I imagined I would do this until my dc's left home but I can't help wondering if it's worth all the hassle/ stress/ extra pressure and work with EYFS

I don't earn a great deal of money I work from 7am until 6.30pm (if you include the cleaning up) then theres the hours I spend doing paperwork and deep cleaning (which I wouldn't do as much without the business)

Come and tell me it's not so bad and the EYFS won't be as bad as I think.

How do you all feel? Anyone feeling positive about the EYFS?

Two issues here then:

One: Low pay for long hours.
That is a known quantity and you have to make an honest judgement about it yourself.

Two: EYFS.
It won't be that bad. It will make things easier if anything by introducing one system instead of two (B23 and FS). Don't panic. Read the pack and work out how to make it's principles and guidelines fit in with your own current practice. A few changes to how you record obs may be needed, but try to see it as a creative challenge rather than an ogre. I'm sure it won't mean masses of extra work. Yes, it will mean doing a bit of homework prior to it's implementation; and yes, it will mean a period of readjustment to any new system you might devise. But other than that - easy peasy!

i think the EYFS wont be to bad yes you will have paper work but this is why i have decided to take the 3yr old grants from sept as i will be doing the paperwork anyway

I really hope you are right, I'm still worried about how I will get round to doing the homework prior to it's implementation as I won't be able to get a pack before July (currently out of print!) then I've got the summer hols with 6 children so I'm more than certain when I do get 5 mins peace I will want to spend the time with my family enjoying the summer NOT reading up on EYFS.

I was told on my course last night that I need to do a risk assesment for every outing and 3 learning journeys per child per week so the time spent doing those will mount up and I already feel I have enough to do. I see the need for EYFS but having everything written is the part I have a problem with.

Am I really so unreasonable?

www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs/

The EYFS information can all be viewed and/or downloaded from here.

Personally I would ignore anything I was told on a 'course', examine the document thoroughly myself, and devise my own strategy for justifying my practice with regard to the EYFS requirements.

If you do a risk assessment for every outing you may well cover every outing you make by a simple written document/tick list that covers e.g.: travelling first aid kit, mobile phone and contact details of parents/carers, wrist bands for children with your name and phone number on, car seats, pushchairs, reins, waterproofs, warm clothes, hats, medications if needed inc sun cream, food, drinks. Then add an additional visual risk assessment of any new areas you go to with regard to fire exits, perimeters, hazards eg domestic (wires/hot drinks/ etc) or outdoor (eg dog mess/broken glass etc). A systematic risk assessment like this which is specific to each area can easily be done in your head, and as long as you can adequately explain the process to Ofsted with recalled examples I can't see any reason for it to be written down for each outing.

Learning journeys can be as simple as finding a bit of wall space for a white board and jotting down things briefly each day as you notice them to be transferred to each child's folder at the end of the day. Not reams and reams just short notes and some photos if you carry a digital camera around in your pocket as you work.

Thank you for your help I have started copying and pasting it all into a word doc so I can take out the bits that are not relevant to me to condense it down and make it seem less to take on board whilst reading through it all.

I think once I get my head around it, it might not seem so bad although I still wholeheartedly disagree with the government taking away the parents choice between a childminder and a nursery setting tbh but as I can't change the minds of the powers that be I will have to crack on with learning all this unless I was to be closed down or work illegally!

A lot of the things that will be madatory I did anyway so thankfully not as much to do as there would be.

I feel like we are being pushed into running a nursery single handedly from home whilst caring for various age groups I think it seems a bit much to expect tbh is this not the case?

Lovemygirls - you're not the only one thinking of giving up - I seem to spend more time on paperwork and worrying about the EYFS. I've been on the courses (two Saturdays) but everything in the pack just repeats itself and has components then more components then more components coming off that component.

Why didn't they make it easier to understand and implement into our working day.

I have already attended several different courses and/or training sessions on the EYFS run by an assortment of "experts" - there is still no consistent idea of how we can incorporate or implement the EYFS.

Everyone has given us different ideas, which have ranged from doing several extra hours per week doing "paperwork" (per child), to only doing one written observation and photograph per week or per month (for each child)!!

The people supposedly training us are all still having training themselves. When asked how Ofsted will expect us to present our evidence during inspections, no-one has an answer. I don't think anyone really knows yet!!

My real objection is having the choice about it - we are not being given a choice! We are not allowed to bumble along happily offering nice, homely childcare (and probably having a lower but passable grade from Ofsted). We have to work to the EYFS, no choice.

I have talked to so many CMs who have said that they will give up purely because of paperwork - either in September or just before they have their next inspection. I think the profession will lose some excellent childcarers.

I am trying not to think too much about how I need to adapt what I already do, but I will certainly continue to gripe and moan about it, because I'm so good at it.

My experience exactly TP with so called EYFS training.

Maybe I am naive but I believe that we can still bumble along providing nice homely childcare.

We just need to have more belief in ourselves and in what we do well and uniquely and simply be prepared to justify everything a bit more.

If you can expand on 'bumbling along' by showing that you take each day a day at a time and respond sensitively and promptly to each child's interests. e.g by building a wall display to develop and celebrate an individual child's latest interest, or by cooking popcorn because a child is fascinated with magic or things that go 'pop' etc etc the possibilities are endless.

It's not hard to make what we do already seem like science.

I aim to make the EYFS work for me and not to struggle against it.

I am a parent with a fabulous CM and fwiw I really hope there is a way of making sure that the EYFS is not a big deal. My CM is utterly woderful with my boys - lots of silly games and cuddles, and I certainly hope that this new system won't change this. I'm sure you are the same and your parents wouldn't want you to drastically change anything you do just because of new paperwork. Focus on why you want to be a CM and what you think is important for your mindees and then work out the minimum that you need to do to meet the rules.

All this nonsense makes me really sad. I want a home from home for my boys not a structured preschool

I don't think that CMs will be able to "bumble along" at all any more.

I meet lots of childminders when I am out and about - there are many of them who attend no courses/training whatsoever, apart from those that are compulsory. They have dutifully come to the EYFS briefing sessions, as instructed, and you can see the absolute panic in their eyes when they listen to the blurb.

These are people who are wonderful, caring childcarers. They have used their Birth To Three packs as doorstops, and have been happy with their "satisfactory" grades from Ofsted.

gooseegg - I totally understand what you said about responding to each child's individual interests etc., but these are people who do not analyse their working days, do not write diaries, and do not do any planning (apart from set activities like toddler group, for instance).

I did a recent training session on "enabling environments" (something in the EYFS!) - if I struggle with deciphering the language used (having already got to grips with Birth to Three, Foundation Stage, being on a network and having access to help from my network), how on earth are other childminders without all the back-up supposed to manage?

Yes - I do see your point TP.

The panic that those childminders you mention who attend the EYFS sessions experience is undoubtedly made worse by the possibly ineffectual training and barely hidden panic of the instructors themselves.

I think that a lot of the courses I have attended have assumed a very, very basic level of understanding, and that it's not necessarily a bad thing to decide not to attend training, but to rely more on reading and academic research for new ideas and inspiration.

There is perhaps a call for a childminder's 'idiots guide' to 'EYFS and it's implementation in a childminding setting'.

The one thing I continually hear on the EYFS courses I've already attended harp on about "you are already doing this anyway" - but many many CMs do not do written observations.

I write a daily diary for each child which, by the very nature of what it is, has information in it about the child's day which I have obviously "seen" or been part of. I have already been told that this isn't exactly what they need for the EYFS.

I do a monthly newsletter for each family - this includes photos of what we have done during the month. This is also not exactly what they need for the EYFS.

I give each family a DVD of all the photos/videos of their child I've taken, which could be seen as photographic "proof" of how they are progressing. This is also not exactly what they need for the EYFS.

In addition to all of the above, it has been suggested that I have a A4 folder, rather than a scrapbook, which will include exact links between properly written observations, photos (which I will already have) and a written link to the specific area of the EYFS that is being looked at.

This is not something that parents want or need for their three-month old baby. My parents would prefer the diary entry to read "ThePrisoner says I did the poopiest nappy she has ever seen, she was dead-impressed," rather than "ThePrisoner says that I should feel acknowledged and affirmed as I have gained confidence and inner strength through my secure attachment with her."

Exactly this is what I am talking about TP, when I researched being a childminder about 4 to 5 years ago I came across MN and first read your posts TP (you have always been one of my fav posters, I sit here and think yep exactly right, you just tell it like it is while being intelligent enough to actually get what the hell is going on behind it all! Perhaps you would be kind enough to write an idiots guide for the cm's? )

I'm still really unhappy about this being forced upon us but have no idea what I will do but I do know that I really don't want to quit because I love what I do and am great at what I do.

Anyone any idea's on what will happen if parents don't allow us to do obs and take photos?

Oh my, shall I start a fan club??

What a brilliant idea though - get parents to refuse permission for photos, written observations and so on!! I think I will ask my network co-ordinator.

does this EYFS apply in Scotland?

TP I have started this thread here too

Ssd as you're under the care comission I don't know if this does apply to you, I'm sure someone will be along with more of an idea soon.