CM Club: Bit worried about my priorities

[KatyMac]

Do you remember a few weeks ago OFSTED phoned to say they were coming. They phoned at lunchtime Thursday to say they might come the following week - they cancelled that Monday morning.

Well I was reading that thread about the OFSTED inspection at the school - where the school was different because OFSTED were coming

I was remembering that Thursday afternoon - when I didn't run round changing all the toys or cleaning or being a headless chicken

No

What I did was put nice neat front covers on all my files

I think I am a bit odd

Not odd... Ofsted are coming, so you made your files nice and neat.

Maybe hoping they were so impressed by the covers, they don't look inside?

Maybe

My parent thought it was hysterical (especially the ones that have dealings with OFSTED)

hehe KatyMac, that made me chuckle. I was nervous of my first inspection, but she was lovely and it went so well. Very thorough, just as it should be, but lovely.

So when are they coming, do you know?

No

They cancelled as they were signed off for 2 weeks with flu, then on holiday for 2 weeks , then it's half-term - so they might see me in March

It's my second actual inspection - the settings 8th or 9th - & I got Outstanding last time - so the pressure is on

Oh okay... and yes, I understand your pressure. I too have that grading, and need to make sure on a daily basis that I maintain it. And I also hope that the next inspector will like what the previous one did IYSWIM!

Good luck, I am sure you'll do well, and I'm sure they'll love your new file covers!

i know some people say not to worry about grading, but I would love outstanding too.
only got satisfactory for my first inspection . obviously 2 years later i have made lots of changes.

hehe no4! They do seem to like it when paperwork looks good... is presented well. If ne pops pics of the kids on them etc. They appreciate effort.

'Satisfactory' and 'Good' are excellent too though, please don't think otherwise! With all we need to do and have in place for OFSTED, to get Satisfactory means you are meeting all their stringent criteria, which is brilliant!

I still think it's a bit odd - that i chose to do that

It's because everything else was already perfect KM, stop bragging

Seriously you know and we know you will be fine, just chill and take care of yourself In the grand scheme of things Ofsted gradings aren't the bee all and end all anyway we all know it depends who you get and what they want one week may not be what they want the week after so it's really anyones guess anyway. As long as you know the children are all happy and you are doing your best, that's all you can do.

Katym, when I was studying, I would be one of those people who tidied up, washed the windows, sorted my cupboards and sharpened all my pencils before actually getting down to doing to work. We called it WABing - Work Avoidance Behaviour! Well, we did back at university in the late 80s.

Maybe you were WABing too??? Doing anything but that which really needs to be done!

Though clearly good looking files are worth the effort take two.....

LMG - I don't think it's that

I do believe that if you are doing it right you don't need to fix it for OFSTED

I don't think it was WAB as I then went straight off into my SEF [gulp}

Oh I don't know - I thought it was odd