Many providers believe that if they tell the Ofsted inspector on the day of inspection that the setting does plan and they do carry out observations that this is sufficient information for the inspector to grade them well.
However this is not sufficient at all!
You need to provide evidence to substantiate your claims, and remember, the more you involve children in the process of planning and evaluation, the happier your inspector will be.
For example:
- Take photos, or even film the planning process.
- Keep copies of any written planning – if you use a whiteboard for planning, take a photo of it, each time you update it.
- Take photos of children participating in the planned activities.
- Find a simple way of asking children to evaluate activities – for example, you can stick a photo of the children undertaking a planned activity on an evaluation sheet, and ask them to attach an appropriate emoji sticker to reflect how they felt about it.
- Make regular observations for your Early Years children – these don’t have to be too onerous, but should be completed fairly regularly, at least once a week.
- Use a suggestion box to ask children for ideas of activities they’d like to do.
- Get children and parents to complete a satisfaction survey. This should be done at least once a year, and once you have received the completed forms, go through them and summarise the overall opinions, and identify areas of strength and weakness, so you can make changes as appropriate. Don’t throw the completed surveys away, refer back to them later in the year to help you assess whether or not you have improved your provision as a result of the feedback.
These simple steps can show the inspector how dedicated and passionate you are about ensuring that the child’s voice is heard and you value and respect everyone’s opinion.