CM pre-registration visit - any tips?

[CallaCate]

Hi, I'm newish, bit of a lurker

Been working towards getting registered as a childminder since January and finally got a date for my pre-registration visit: two weeks on Thursday.

So my question to more experienced childminders is... do you have any tips for me? Anything I should/shouldn't do or might not have thought of? Anything you wish you'd known before Ofsted first crossed your threshold? Should I bake a cake?!

Thanks!

Lots of risk assessments already done is good. You just need to show that you've put lots of thought into keeping the children safe and be able to say why you've made all the decisions about safety equipment and routines.

Be very focussed on following the children's interests. Be prepared to say how you are going to use their current levels of development and their interests to plan and support their learning. It doesn't have to be complicated.

Make sure there is lots of information available for parents too.

I know you don't have to have written policies but it helps to show Ofsted that you've thought things through.

I'm sure there'll be lots more advice coming from others too.

Its good if you can show that you have thought about how you are going to make the best use of space around your home.

Do a floor plan, showing all rooms (even the ones you arn't regestering) show on it your escape route, smoke alarms, fire blankets, extinguishers and put up on wall.

Do risk assessments for all areas inside and out.

Show how you have identified hazards and what you have done to make them safe.

Fist aid kit stocked and stored safely, same for cleaning equipment, cosmetics, toiletries etc.

Do a daily routine showing what kind of activities you plan to do.

Learn your local LA's safeguardng proceedres, if your not already familiar with them.

Your pre-reg is mainly just to make sure your home is safe and the inspector will let you know how many mindees you will be allowed. If you have time and you havn't started yet you could get policys and proceedures sorted too.

Good Luck

relax they are human i got myself worked up and she was lovely you can have your 43 questions with you to look over

they'll probley ask if you know about the eyfs and if you've organised how yr gonna do your observations just so long as you;ve thought about it you should be fine as it takes time to get a method of observing that works for you

Try to mention sustainability at some point - if you recycle, use compost, grow any fruit/veg, reuse newspaper/egg cartons for craft etc.

Also mention that you're aware of the SEF and will start evaluating your practise from when you begin. If you can have the form and the guidelines printed out to show you have thought about it that would be good.

I recently had an inspection and the inspector said Ofsted are quite hot on these topics (sustainability and self evaluation) atm.

Good luck! It's never as bad as you think it will be

I would do lots of risks assessments!

Make sure you have read through your EYFS book from national strategies - that really helped me.

also have a think about what you would do in an emergency (fire and escape routes) particularly if you have little ones and also safeguarding - got asked both in my visit!

HTH X

Thank you all very much for your help.

deedeeschildminding - I wondered about how childminders' record that they're meeting the EYFS (I take it this is what you mean by doing/recording observations) and asked about it at the EYFS training but they just said they'd visit me at home and tell me about it after I was registered so I have no idea how it's done! Any ideas so I don't seem totally clueless with the inspector?

joeypotter - I'm guessing SEF is self-evaluation form...? This is something I don't know anything about yet either! Do you have a link to where I can download it?

Thanks loads, everyone, helped focus what I should do with the time I have to prepare and settled my nerves too.

Hi Calla,

You can find all the info for the forms for the SEF on this page: SEF

There you'll find the Form to download as either Word or PDF, depending if you want to fill it in on computer or by hand, and the Guidance too, which is pretty helpful.

Oh and yep, sef stands for self evaluation form. It's quite mega so don't get too worried when you look at it, I think at pre-reg stage it's just a bonus to know about it and have a copy printed out. You don't have to know what you'll write yet, don't worry