Nursery asked to me to keep daughter home due to OFSTED visiting

[Fidgitigdif123]

So my daughter is 4 and has a diagnosis of autism. She has a speech and language delay, and needs some support throughout the day, particularly when it comes to toileting, but isn't too difficult to handle, and she generally keeps herself to herself. The nursery are always praising her for how good she's been during the day, and they always say she's a happy girl who enjoys being there.
I had a phone call from her key worker the other day (who also happens to be one of the nursery managers), asking me to keep her home the following day because they have an OFSTED inspector visiting. Apparently they don't have enough staff to be able to support my daughter while the OFSTED inspector is visiting (apparently they'll need a member of staff to show the inspector around, which will mean my daughter won't have anyone to support her during the visit).
I'm confused by this, as there's been countless times where they've had several staff off sick at one time (including her key worker), and yet she's still been able to go into nursery.
I'm actually starting to think they just want her out of the way for the day so it'll be easier for them to focus on the inspection, but surely this would be the best time to show off how good they are at dealing with children with SEN and other disabilities?
I genuinely don't know if I'm right in being a little bit upset about this, as it feels like they just want to sweep her under the carpet; like they're embarrassed by her being there or something.

Does your dd have an ehcp? If not then I suspect they are managing needs with existing staff and are simply struggling to find enough staff to be with the inspectors. I doubt it is specifically about hiding your dd. There may be sickness and/or annual leave on top remember

It beggars belief then, really, that you think the solution to Ofsted being unfit for purpose is to exclude autistic children from their educational settings.

They need all hands to the pump when Ofsted is in. They criticise every single thing so you keeping your child off will make a huge difference to their workload and stress management. They will still have the normal staff absences to negotiate

Yes they are playing the Ofsted game. Help them if you can. If you can't tell them

@3xchaos

The nursery see a child with additional needs and give her exactly what she needs.

Ofsted see a nursery with a child not meeting targets and write it as a failing of the nursery.

But yes… let’s allow the nursery to have a bad inspection because of an unfit body, which leads to job losses and staff quitting and prospective parents going elsewhere so fewer few payers to fund the nursery. Because that’s going to be so helpful for the OP and her child, who currently have a wonderful nursery with attentive staff supporting her the way she needs it.

I have an autistic child who also has adhd.

I was a teacher for twenty years.

The first time I went into a school after leaving uni myself was to work with a school where the teacher had been told she was inadequate and had killed herself, leaving a class of primary children and a whole school distraught.

Ofsted inspections are brutal. There is no sense in which they are just "seeing the school as normal" anywhere. Every school pulls out all the stops because the consequences of getting a bad judgement are so bad.

It used to be the case the ofsted inspectors did not even need to be teachers. These days they do have to be in the education system but they do not have to have worked in the phase they are inspecting. So you get secondary heads inspecting primaries and nurseries.

Also, these days ofsted inspections are by contract. There are fewer permanent inspectors and it is mostly people (often primary or secondary heads or deputies) taking days out of their normal job,

Some of these people have expertise with send. An awful lot don't. Schools will therefore go to a lot of effort to keep kids with send away from the inspectors because put bluntly the inspectors can upset the kids and kids can upset the inspector.

Nobody wants a nursery or a primary getting an inadequate rating because you have to try to explain to an inspector that he triggered an autistic meltdown.

Well, you can’t keep ofsted out. And it’s ofsted who will mark the nursery down, it’s ofsted who discriminate and ofsted who write a report saying the nursery have failings. When actually… they’re caring for a child with additional needs.

If the risk is losing the nursery, losing staff… when that nursery have been wonderful for my child. Then yeah, I’d play the game and help them. Because I wouldn’t have the ability to fight ofsted.

Who's being "hysterical"? (Nice bit of misogyny).

Aren't you the one who invoked someone's suicide to try and pressure a mother to keep quiet about their autistic child being excluded from nursery?

They will reprimand the nursery for discrimination yes and so they should be. Call immediately! They're doing it for their benefit not the child.
It's hilarious you have such a high opinion of something when you don't even live in the country but keep going it's fun .

I agree it is Ofsted that are the problem. As pp have said, they see a child with behavioural issues and blame the school, and mark them down.

Also if the school is struggling with insufficient resources, they will get marked down even though it’s not their fault. They need to fool Ofsted into thinking they have sufficient resources.

My sister teaches and she got given piles of paper and pens etc and told to save them for when Ofsted came in. So Ofsted would think she has that level of resources all the time. And they told kids to stay at home because they didn’t want Ofsted to know that they didn’t have enough special needs staff (through no fault of their own, they didn’t have the money to hire any more).

Yes, reprimand them for discriminating whilst then writing reports which say schools and nurseries are failing…. Because ofsted don’t make allowances for kids with additional needs. Because the inspectors don’t know anything about it.

Yep this is what I’d do too.

If ofsted reports actually led to changes to help the schools, like realising that kids with additional needs are struggling because the school doesn’t have the budget so an ofsted report help them get more money then that would be great. Show it all and be honest, and get the school extra support.

But that isn’t what happens. They just get marked as failing because some kids aren’t meeting targets… because those kids have additional needs. It’s ofsted who discriminate. The staff don’t deserve it and the end result is the nursery and schopl
being worse off… so then the kids lose out.

@Fargo79 completely agree. I don't disagree with views around ofsted but purposely excluding a disabled child is beyond the pale. I genuinely can't believe posters are trying to encourage the mother to accept this. What about the stress, pressure (and sadly, dare I say, suicides) associated with being disabled and the subsequent exclusion from society? You have a group of Ofsted inspectors, a group of adult professionals running a business, and a disabled child. It is so stunningly unfair to suggest that it is reasonable for the disabled child to take the flack for difficulties between the former two groups. There needs to be change and complaints need to be (and have been) raised, but absolutely not at the expense of seeing a disabled child's right to participate in society as something that can be removed for others' convenience.

I'm afraid this is commonplace. Unfortunately settings still feel the need to jump through hoops for the inspectors. I'd just go with it if you're otherwise happy with the nursery. Remember a part of Ofsted's inspection is parent views so make sure you respond to that stating exactly what you think - either about your nursery's decision or the pressure they are put under by Ofsted depending on where you stand on this.

Totally agree with @WarshipRocinante 's calmed and measured posts. I have ASD and I have a child with ASD. I would initially feel a bit hurt by the nursery's request but then I'd have a word with myself, look at the horror that is an Ofsted inspection, consider how poorly Ofsted understand and support both teachers and children with additional needs - and support the nursery 100% by keeping my child off during the inspection.

Good nurseries are hard to come by. Good nurseries that support SEND kids are rare as hen's teeth. You know your nursery, OP - judge them by how they treat your daughter every single day, not on how they are forced to behave due to the unfairness of Ofsted.

I would do it.

OFSTED destroy schools and nurseries with poor reports. I have two disabled children and worked in schools for 20 years and the issue with the inspections is getting worse and worse.

My DD2s school were amazing with her. She achieved a brilliant education in incredibly difficult circumstances (came out with good GCSE’s despite having a 47% attendance one year). Yet an Ofsted inspector used her to absolutely slate a teacher and the school were heavily criticised for not having attendance rewards to encourage higher attendance (I mean, maybe if they’d offered a certificate and trip to Alton towers for 100% attendance she’d have hopped out of that ICU bed…).

When DD4 was in mainstream while we fought for her to be moved to specialist we absolutely kept her home for the inspection day. I wasn’t allowing my child to be used as a tool to assault her school by a not-fit-for-purpose department that is failing children and schools on a daily basis

The problem here is you get the idiotic group shouting “discrimination” and they cannot see the nuance in it. That the group actually discriminating are ofsted. And there is nothing the school or the parents can do about that to get a fair report. They’ll use your child to rip the teacher and school apart…. And then your child ends up in a school without the amazing teachers they previously had because of job losses and people quitting.

But hey, let’s blame the nursery for discrimination because we all love a good buzz word and ignore who the actually villain is here.

OP has said she is upset by this. Even if she wasn't, that wouldn't negate the fact that the underlying message is a child with disabilities is not welcome so as to reduce stress for adults.

I'm not a teacher but work in another public sector role with poor resources, understaffing and high levels of stress, burn out, staff sickness, and suicides. I know how awful it is. I know how awful inspections and management can be. But it is all for the adults in the room to discuss. It is never ok to treat the rights of disabled people as negotiable based on how hard our work day is. It just isn't. And it is incredibly unfair to suggest that the OP should allow it to slide to secure ongoing appropriate schooling for her child. It is such a slippery scope. The treatment of people with disabilities in this country is already shocking. We should not be arguing that a child's ongoing access to education is conditional on her temporarily being excluded.

Sometimes you have to look at the greater good picture @Poppyandseed

One example I have of that is being asked to keep my DD at home on a day when a stair lift was being fitted outside her class. The noise would have distressed her and the staff were already having to take all the children a longer route in and out while the work was done which would have been difficult for DD to manage.

sounds awful, but the stair lift was for her. It was one day home to make her life much easier long term.

This is similar. Not allowing Ofsted to use her DD to attack the nursery will allow them to give good care, as they have been doing, to her DD long term

@Poppyandseed I don't see that as the underlying message. I am very attune to discrimination and ableism; I have two disabled kids and, as I have said, one of them has ASD (as do I). This isn't discrimination. This is a nursery that DOES welcome a disabled child and DOES support her, every day. And who in turn have asked a parent for support, so that they can get through the brutality and unfairness of an Ofsted inspection. Yes, it's shit, and yes, they shouldn't have to ask, but focus your anger on Ofsted rather than on a nursery that the OP has said is actually really supportive of her daughter.

OP, you know, in your heart of hearts, that they care for your daughter. They're asking you because they're scared, and they are right to be. Support the nursery so that they can continue to support your child.

If they've not asked other children to not attend also that don't have SEN, then it's quite discriminatory. They could also up the ratio of staff tomorrow by asking 4 non SEN children to not attend?

I know the foibles of OFSTED and the hoops that need to be jumped through, but this isn't fair on OP or her child.

Probably not this thread bit likely one very similar as this discrimation against disabled children happens far too often.

If it's a nursery you otherwise trust and think is a good place for your daughter, I would probably help them out (if you can) and keep her off. I would want to go in and have a good chat with the manager first though, to get a feel for the situation.

It is shit they feel they need to do it, but they're probably terrified about the Ofsted and just trying to get through it. A bad Ofsted could get them closed.

OP can you attend nursery for the day so that your DD can not be excluded (disproportionately) and that the team are then able to meet with inspectors? Does it have to be “stay away”?