Has anyone ever changed their DC's nursery on the basis of an inspection report?

[gaelicsheep]

I'm just wondering how much credence people give to these. If you're generally happy with the nursery and your DC is happy do you take the inspection report with a pinch of salt?

It's not a terrible report in our case, but it's not that great either. Adequate and good respectively for the two aspects that were looked at in detail. I am concerned that DS might not be stretched enough, but otherwise I'm happy with the care. He's only in 2 days a week so I'm not overly concerned.

Oh and anyone in Scotland, do you find the Care Commission reports utterly useless and impossible to compare from inspection to inspection?

Bump

Yes I did. I had my concerns about the nursery and the report made me think why have the worry so I changed the nursery and I was so much happier.

I suppose it depends what it is that's bothering you. We've changed nurseries before because we were seriously concerned that DS wasn't settling and we weren't happy with the quality of care. This time it's more about communication about what the children are doing, and being unsure whether there's enough attention paid to the needs of individual age groups. Plus they don't really do outings and stuff like that. But DS has lots of friends and we like all the staff so I'm very loathed to consider moving him at this stage. If he was full time I'd probably think differently though.

True. I moved DS when he was 1. He was going into a new room anyway. I think I had put my concerns to the back of my mind as I was still feeling guilty for going back to work p/t. When I saw the report it was the last staw. DS soon made new friends. I don't think I could have moved him if he had made lots of friends if he was 3+

There are 4 grades:
Outstanding,
Good,
Satisfactory,
and Unsatisfactory.

You need to see why they did poorly. Administration that doesn't affect children Isn't too bad. Poor quality staff is. Find out what they are going to do about it. How keen are they to fix any issues?

I would leave an unsatisfactory or satisfactory nursery. Satisfactory means it achieves the bare minimum for a pass. Good is good. I'd be happy with that. The difference between the top 2 grades seems a bit vague and can depend on what inspector did the inspection and what mood they were in.

I have worked in nurseries that got an outstanding grade that were dire. A nursery can fake it for a day.

I'm in Scotland and lots of parents complain they are a pain in the you know what to look through. Often the problem is if you get a different inspector or they are looking at different aspects then it can be difficult to follow through any improvements made, plus they are generally only done on a single day, often only a single session (2-3hrs max) so don't show a great depth of whats really happening in the nursery. As a prectitioner I often argue with things they put in the reports like - 'the children have no time together as a group', ehm, yes they did but at 9am 20mins before you arrived.

Yes that's my impression too mum2all. On further reflection, I don't think the Care Commission reports are worth the paper they're written on. We've decided to keep him where he is.

I chose DS nursery on the strength of previous Care Commission reports and the two annual reports since have been excellent...They consistently tick all the boxes in relation to curriculum, birth to 3 etc and visually is pretty impressive in comparison to other nurseries we visited.....HOWEVER I'm not convinced that DS nursery necessarily offers a superior level of care than many others do, although I have absolutely no complaints and am glad he is there.

I'm inclined to think that the owners are very good business people, are consistently well organised and prepared and the managers and room supervisers run a very tight ship. Does this result in a better nursery in terms of care/stimualation or rather an efficient and successful business that hits all the markers?

I must say that any nursery that has given me the impression of being a successful "business" first and foremost - and there are many of them - just puts me right off. They are just too impersonal and feel like childcare factories. Interestingly the two nurseries I've been happy with (we've moved three times since DS was 1) are the ones with no Ofsted/Care Commission reports as they were both new. I used my own judgement in both cases.

The so-called "Curriculum for Excellence" is another thing that gets me. DS's nursery has been criticised by the local council because they are apparently not following the "curriculum" well enough. Why? The play/activities are not child-led enough - ie they don't let the kids do exactly what they like when they like. I'm having my doubts about the whole Scottish education system just now on the basis of the stuff I've been hearing recently.

I obviously have read the report and as all the comments are good, with the exception of one specific area (communication with parents) I'm puzzled by the Adequate grading for that aspect. But the reports are so badly written and so full of standard text that you really can't glean anything useful from them. The nursery is clearly making an effort to improve the way they communicate what the children have been doing and are looking at expanding the activities on offer eg gardening etc. so I really have no complaints.

Gaelic - I didn't get the impression of it being a business first and foremost. Children appeared happy, well cared for and well stimulated. Surroundings bright, clean and colourful. That along with previous CC reports praising level of care swayed it for me.

It's been since DS started that I've become more and more aware of it being a very successful business. Becoming aware of how the owners/managers operate, their communications with parents, PR, local impression of the nursery, long waiting lists etc. What I was trying to say is along with excellent care I think this would ultimately have a positive effect on inspections.

Curriculum for Excellence is just kicking off. It'll take time to embed in the system but like it or loath it, nurseries will have to comply with it as it'll run through from 3-18. Maybe it seems odd to have a curriculum at 3 but that's just the way it is and nurseries who don't embed it will be criticised in CC reports.

I slightly mis-read your post actually. I thought you were musing whether your child's nursery, well staffed with good care, was better than one run primarily as a business that hits all the markers. If it does both then that's great.

As far as I can see the CFE for 3 and 4 year olds is very unchallenging and basically so child-centred to be completely ridiculous. But I've only had a quick look - I really need to look in more detail. Hopefully the parents site is up and running now.

That's what I was trying to say, but have a habit of waffling!

I have noticed that DS nursery is allowing much more 'Children's choice' at the moment which would presumably tie in with the child centred approach of CfE.

Maybe the theory behind it is a reaction to criticisms that British 4 and 5 year olds are schooled too early compared to other EU countries. If that is the case then presumably the infant years of primary school would have to have more of a child centred/play approach, although how workable this would be I'm not sure?

I'll need to have a look at the website too.

MIntChoc - there has been a curriculum from 3 around for a long time but prior to curriculum for excellence it was a nursery only one which didn't link clearly to the curriculum followed in primary1.

gaelicsheep 'Why? The play/activities are not child-led enough - ie they don't let the kids do exactly what they like when they like' thats not a very clear idea of play led learning perhaps your nursery need more guidance in this area and the local council should have a someone who's job it is to support private nurseries ( I used to do it in our area). Play led learning is more about getting the balance between teaching children information/skills we think they need and following the children's interests/lines of enquiry, the most important word being balance. This may be what the nursery is finding a challenge - I think lots of places are.
As a nursery teacher I think the generally consensus, certainly at nursery/primary 1 stage of Curriculum for excellence is that it is all a bit 'airy-fairy'. Statements are not clear/show a progression of basic skills like the old 3-5 curriculum did. We could look at a child's file and tell you - they can count to 14, order numbers to 11, use their right hand to draw and write and are at the stage of writing recognisable letters. Clear and meaningful info which at the moment we are struggling to match with onften jargon heavy,ACfE statements. Old style 3-5 was much easier to share with parents/carers. Am getting a wee bit frustrated but we have to work with it for the mo and these things are always evolving anyway the more people work with them and feed back. It's always really interesting to get a parents perspective as we have been looking at and dealing with this for a long time but it is newer to parents.

Ooooh, wee bit on my high horse tonight!

mum2all - That was just my own very crude and simplistic paraphrasing. I think the nursery gets it just fine, and from what you've said that's exactly what they do. I get the impression from a number of sources that the support being offered to the nursery by the local council is pretty darned poor and that there are ulterior motives at work. I actually don't really care if they are or aren't following the CfE as long as they're looking after DS well and he's being stimulated. I agree that it is incredibly woolly and I pity any professionals that have to work with it.