Ripeberry's pre-school saga, round two...Ofsted

[Ripeberry]

Hi, why is it that when i think things are settling down it all starts up again?
Our new pre-school leader is great and the kids,staff and parents love her.
I've had to get an EY2 completed for our leader for Ofsted and i just rang Ofsted just to see who they had down as being on their list for the pre-school.
There were over 8 people going back over 4yrs ago, that had never been taken off!
And then they started asking awkward questions about our old pre-school leader (she refused to sign an EY2 in September and had never signed the employment contract but still turned up for work)
Aarghhhh! I'm just trying my best to sort out the mess so all the loose ends are tidy for the new committee as i don't want them to have to go through what we had to.
If you ring Ofsted about things like this, do they bring forward an inspection?
I've still got all the policies to do and get checked by the committee, also got to get the SEF started.
I am so glad this is my last year on the committee.

I'm sorry I can't help on the OFSTED front but we've just updated our policies using the publications from the Pre-school Learning Alliance. If you buy the books, it entitles you to a password on the website where you can downloads all the EYFS policies and procedures. Saves alot of typing

I've foung the joys of the PSLA policies, I've already printed off a few. Can i ask cktwo, did you need to change every policy or was it just a few of them?

I thought it might have been a few bit in the end we had to use every single one in the PSLA book to make sure we were covered legally . We also added a few of our own.

We are going to add a couple and especially a "Snow Policy" after this February's problems.

We have changed all our policies on our preschool committee. It took a while. We sniggered away at the "snow policy" requirement, living in Devon, it's not a regular problem, perhaps once in 20 years they get real snow, but this year there actually was snow and we are very proud to have our Snow Policy updated.

We did the same, ck, much eaier!

Ripeberry, you have ha da rough time of it!
I found a similar thing when I was chair and I don't think it brought forward the inspection.
Are you due one soon?

Hi Littlerach, last inspection was Nov 2005, so it think we are WAY overdue. We might get inspected at the same time as the primary school, so then we can panick then!
I've been going through the policies changing 'setting' to 'pre-school' and 'Owner' to 'Management Committee'.
I really hate typing 'Committee'

I don't think Ofsted would bring forward the inspection because of your queries, Ripeb., they would bring it forward really only if there was a complaint from the public or police involvement -- or if your last inspection was unsatisfactory, then you would expect a visit within 6 months.

Oh, btw, Ofsted swept thru and did all the schools and preschools about the same time, last year (saving on hotel bills?). So you could get wind of their likely impending visit from hearing about them going to other local settings.