Dropped DC1 at preschool this morning and was approached by said inspector. She asked how I felt about the place. I have mixed feelings about it. It feeds into our local catchment primary and the local politics are such that (though this is not how things should be) your child has to go to the PS to get a primary place. However, I find their approach rather workmanlike when it comes to pastoral care. DC has some issues with structure and control along with a health issue, not having been in group care prior to preschool and I felt they took a "like it or lump it" approach to her (and any other child settling in). I believe in trying to work with teachers, preschool workers etc and have offered to work in any capacity on the committee to show that I am not just being some pushy mother, but they are just not interested. To me, they just don't care enough about the individual kids - and interestingly, the same comment was made to me about the place by an Early Years teacher from another institution. "Sausage factory" is the general view among other LEA employees.
So presented with the opportunity to talk about the preschool with OFSTED, I was willing to do so. Apparently, such a conversation could only take place in the corridor, within earshot of staff, with my other child dumped outside in the rain as there is no room for the pram inside. I stressed that I had concerns but that there were good points too but the inspector was clearly just looking for a sort of verbal rubber stamping. In which case, why bloody bother??