nursery and ofsted

[wearymum200]

Hope someone has some experience to help. Our nursery is getting grief from an Ofsted inspector; there are a couple of "welfare complaints" in the baby room. These are:

1. Children's noses not wiped quickly enough (!)
2. Child (mine definitely and possibly others), shock horror, allowed to sleep on their fronts. My child is 18months, is put down on her back and flips over. Ofsted say nursery are failing in their duty of care because they are not waking her up and putting her onto her back. Frankly, I would be livid if they were. DD is way beyond the cot death risk age, my understanding of the "back to sleep" guidelines is that once they are old enough to turn over, you put them down on their backs but then leave them to it. And dd needs her sleep. Ofsted inspector apparently said nursery staff "breaking the law" because not waking DD. WTF??? This is on the background of a previous Ofsted visit where various other concerns were raised (not wiping noses that time), namely that DD was being neglected because she was sitting quietly in the cosy corner with a book (she is mobile, perfectly able to trot along for a cuddle/ join in activities if she wants, she obviously didn't want at that moment and so they'd let her get on with "reading"), dd was asleep so not joining in activity. And to cap it all, in the preschool, DS (4)and his fellows were "being pushed too hard" because some of them were reading. I should point out that DS has been at nursery since he was 11m, so we have long experience and are very happy there. Essentially, I'm looking for some way of getting Ofsted to apply common sense... any ideas?

Ofsted inspections depend on what happens on one day when all the staff are very nervous about an Ofsted inspection. They also depend on the Ofsted inspector, and some of them are better than others. Some of them are very poor indeed. They also depend on what mood the inspector is in and his/her particular likes and dislikes.
The nursery could list all the concerns they have regarding their inspection and go to Ofsted with them.

I'm afraid my experience is that some Ofsted inspectors have a complete common-sense bypass. My DS's nursery was also pulled up on a number of trivial issues. The caring nature of the staff and the happiness of the children didn't seem to count for very much. Only advice I can offer is to read Ofsted reports with a pinch of salt and base decisions about nurseries on recommendations from friends and your own impressions.

You could probably make a complaint to Ofsted about the inspector but I would make sure you have a copy of the report and discuss it with the nursery manager first. I don't know if they would accept your complaint but it's worth a try. That inspector does sound like she's lost touch with reality rather.

But isn't it fantastic that some of the pre-school children are reading? Isn't that nursery doing well in encouraging them to achieve their own best outcomes.

Has this report been made public yet? If so then I would write a letter to Ofsted as your response to their report from the angle of a parent. Stating why you send your child their and how you feel about their "welfare issues".

If it's not in the public domain yet and a staff member has shared this info with you, I would check with the nursery first, perhaps write a letter to them so they can forward it on with their own report.

Well done for supporting your chosen nursery, they are very lucky to have a parent like you.

How about - Staff not asking enough open questions to the pre-verbal babies. If Ofsted are looking for problems they will find them.