Nursery had a very unexpected slightly poor OFSTED report....

[CountessDracula]

Just read it.

Apparantly the inspection was very stressful and the inspector was "unprofessional". The last one (a year ago) was glowing. This one was "satisfactory" (other options Inadequate, Good, Outstanding) in all areas but one (despite them not having a bad word to say in these areas, not sure why they should only be satisfactory).

The bit that worried me was that they said the quality of nursery education was inadequate, particularly that "older or more able children are not sufficiently challenged". Now tbh not sure I want my just 3YO to be challenged, however at parent's evening her keyworker (fab, been there 15 years!) said that she is way ahead of anyone else in her peer group in writing, numbers, speech etc. So this particular critcism obviously worries me.

Apparantly the Early Years childcare developmetn partnership (the early childhood liaison, education a;nd training provider part of the local council) were extremely surprised by this inspector's judgement (they work closely with the nursery) and have contacted OFSTED to query the validity of the report. I think this is a good sign. The nursery honestly does not seem to have changed in the past year and the same staff are there in the main. It is a lovely nursery, I don't want to move dd at all but by the same token I don't want her to be bored. I am going to organise a meeting with her key worker for this Friday.

Has anyone had an experience of a dodgy OFSTED report before? It really does sound wrong to me. Could it just be that the inspector had a personality clash with someone or was having an off day? Or do you think these reports are always right?

Oh and 'very good' doesn't exsist any more in Ofsted.

Unsatisfactory, satisfactory, good and exceptional are the new grades

Thank you all

I had a chat to them this morning and they have been told they are having a re-inspection.

However, on reflection I guess that this new policy of just turning up with little or no warning is bound to affect the reports and in fact will flush out any areas of weakness, giving them a chance to improve.

The report was SO badly written, I was shocked!

I quite like the fact the visits by ofsted are unexpected as i know of a nursery that used to hire in extra staff when it was the week of the inspections !!! Anyway, my advice would be to go by your little one. If she seems happy there then let her be. If she's anything like my 3 year old then she will tell you if she is unhappy about something. Our experience was similar. Our dd1 was at my dh's workplace nursery which was great for toddlers but not so much for the 3-5 year old room. I had my doubts about that room and the keyworkers, and when the ofsted report confirmed my beliefs we took her out and she now goes to a local preschool which she loves and is learning so much. She did however say she didn't like the previous nursery anymore, and that she was bored etc. So if your dd is still keen to go to the nursery clearly she isn't bored. Good luck !!

I don't know if the same thing applies to nurseries as it does to childminders, but there is something that really bugs me ... when we (childminders) are graded, parents assume that our grading of "satisfactory" or "good" applies to our care of the children. Do parents know that this grading includes our ability to do paperwork as well?

We can be absolutely brilliant at having all the right forms signed, our accident book just perfect, our attendance registers up-to-date and our written policies worthy of an award. We might be a bit slack on our "care" of the children (meals provided not too "healthy", not many trips to the library or park, not aware of development stages and how to enhance children's learning). If we have lots and lots of "good" ticks for our paperwork, we can then be graded as "good" (which parents probably think means we are all whizzo with your children).

By the same token, we might be absolutely excellent in our day-to-day care of the children (lots of activities, lots of cuddles), but might be absolute rubbish at the (boring) paperwork. So, we might get so many negative ticks because of our bad admin skills, and get graded as "satisfactory" overall.

If parents have to choose between a "good" or a "satisfactory" childminder, and don't read the whole OFSTED report, you might draw the short straw.

Do nurseries get graded in the same way?

hello theprisoner, you make an interesting point.

at dd's nursery the overall rating was, as i said, "satisfactory" but yet the ratings under all the subheadings were good/very good. so actually i was a bit non-plussed as to why the overall rating came out as it did.

I work in a nursery and what ive gathered is that outstanding is having every little bit of paperwork 100% in the exact way they want it and everything perfect with no recomendations at all. Anything less is good/satisfactory.
And maybe its actually a good sign, they are so busy playing with the kids there hasnt been time to make sure they have ticked every single box to ofsteds liking.

When I've discussed this issue with parents, albeit with regard to childminders, they would all prefer a minder who is graded "good" rather than "satisfactory". Unless you know how the system works, or bother to read the reports, I suspect lots of people will be the same with nurseries.

I know there is now a new grading system, but an OFSTED inspector told me that it would be extremely unlikely for a childminder to be "good enough" to be graded as "outstanding". I know that some have though, but haven't found out how they managed it yet!

My son attended a nursery which after a change of management went from a very good nursery to a really unsatisfactory/poor nursery. Almost all the parents took their kids out of the nursery.There was a high turnover of new children and nursery teachers. The management got a lot of complaints and there was a petition from the parents regarding the care of the kids. Anyway, that particular year the nursery went through ofsted and guess what, they got a really good report.

So I would take some Ofsted reports with a pinch of salt.

I taught for 1 year in a beacon school which had received an excellent OFSTED report. It was a terrible place to work and the provision for most of the children was shocking. I'm going to list some of the things;

1. Much of the art/d&t work on display around the school was done by teachers.

2. Classes were frequently left with TAs throughout the week so senior staff could make paperwork and records look perfect.

3. Only senior staff were allowed to speak to parents.

4. Children were heavily prepped for the lessons during OFSTED week. Able, chatty children moved to sit on the corners of all tables. Four very able Y6s spent most of the wk in the computer suite doing the same staged thing over and over until an inspector finally popped in to see what he thought was casual, independent learning.

5. SATs papers were brought to the headteacher's office. His desk cleared of everything but a rubber and pencil and his deputy stood guard outside. Make of that what you want!

6)The year I was there, two boys who struggled tremendously with literacy got level 5s in Y6?!? I don't think so. They both only scraped a L1 at Y2.

Much, much more but it's making me cross so must end there.

CD our school had a ?satisfactory? just lately, as did the other two schools in the area, all highly thought-of and full of lovely polite interested pupils.
I am wondering if Ofsted are getting tougher? No schools in our whole city have got more than satisfactory or maybe one ?good? this term, according to one of my fellow governors.
Agree with falaalaa satisfactory is not bad. However if it was very good only last year (blimey, 2 ofsteds in a year!) then that is perhaps worth mentionign to them. I?m sure they will have some helpful responses to any worries.

Agreed, I'd pay more attention to the feel of the nursery, than just ofsted. Like previous posters, my school was ofsteded eralier in the year and only got outstandings / Very goods... but you should have seen how much money was spent on achiveing it... it did not reflect what education the children got the other four years. And as others have said, I've seen teachers who normally can't be arsed do the most amazing lessons and pull it off, whilst the sound 'plodders' who continually do good lessons, but not that showy wow type things only get good - yet in reality they're much better than the show stoppers, because they are consistent! Yet, ofsted does not reflect this at all, and unfortunately, (IMO), is heavily biased towards those that can 'swing it'.

(Not sour grapes, mind as despite having survived three ofsteds now, I have yet to ever meet an inspector in one of my lessons!!)

So yeah, go with your feel and impressions, and don't worry too much about it

Sorry, CD. I saw this yesterday but haven't had time to post a reply, I'll catch up with you on Saturday.