Guest Posted February 26, 2013 Posted February 26, 2013 Hi everyone I wonder if anyone can help me. I have recently taken a maternity cover post in a school-based nursery. There are 26 children, 1 teacher and 2 Nursery Nurses. To help the children I have been told to stick to their routines which I agree with. However, i think the children are spending too much time having whole class and large group teaching sessions instead of child-initiated learning/play. Eg the children spend about half an hour at the beginning of the 3 hour session having registration, some teaching input, then they split into phonics groups. Then they have about an hour of child-initiated learning, then its tidy time, then more large group teaching, ususally maths, then story and songs before home time. Does this sound right? Is there any expectation from OFSTED for all this direct teaching? I don't want to rock the boat, I just want to do what's right. Thanks.
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 26, 2013 Posted February 26, 2013 well this is certainly very different from what our inspector saw ...but i'm not a school nursery (but i am outstanding!) 1
AnonyMouse_38881 Posted February 27, 2013 Posted February 27, 2013 (edited) You seem to have a similar problem to us, which I posted about too! Would love to hear from an outstanding School nursery on this! * That would be good or outstanding since Sept 2012x- I've been to see 'good' from pre Sept 2012 recently and frankly, it wasn't! :blink: Edited February 27, 2013 by Madmum
Guest Posted January 3, 2014 Posted January 3, 2014 I'm a bit late but I agree with bradfordjane - there does seem to be a lot of direct teaching and carpet time, but I've a feeling this is a trend. And, like Madmum, I'd also be interested to see a timetable from a recently inspected outstanding school nursery setting. Would any of you like to share please? Thanks
AnonyMouse_3307 Posted January 3, 2014 Posted January 3, 2014 (edited) That does seem to be a bit unbalanced to me, I have to say. The thing with an outstanding school judgement is it is the sum of all the parts, and takes into account all the teaching and learning from 3 - 11 and as such the judgement isn't going to be based on just one out of 3 key stages and the different teaching/curricula across them. It's a best fit judgement and if you read section 5 reports the EYFS will be judged in terms of outcomes not pedagogy. A primary school can be outstanding and a nursery school can be outstanding but the EYFS curriculum may be delivered differently in both. Cx Edited January 3, 2014 by catma
AnonyMouse_38881 Posted January 4, 2014 Posted January 4, 2014 That does seem to be a bit unbalanced to me, I have to say. The thing with an outstanding school judgement is it is the sum of all the parts, and takes into account all the teaching and learning from 3 - 11 and as such the judgement isn't going to be based on just one out of 3 key stages and the different teaching/curricula across them. It's a best fit judgement and if you read section 5 reports the EYFS will be judged in terms of outcomes not pedagogy. A primary school can be outstanding and a nursery school can be outstanding but the EYFS curriculum may be delivered differently in both. Cx This is where we struggle Catma! Our outcomes in KS1 and 2 mean that we're unlikely to ever get a grading of 'Outstanding' as a whole school however good EYFS is. Add to that Ofsted reports that focus on Phonics, literacy and numeracy in EYFS and then get a couple of lines in a final report and you are up against it! We've visited other settings which are Outstanding and have felt that in the case of nurseries attached to achools it was the KS1 and 2 that made them outstanding, and in the case of a nursery/infant school they excelled by not having a KS2 to worry about! I have come across a nursery attached to a school recently which advertises itself as 'outstanding' which is an LA judgement of the nursery alone, whilst the Ofsted judgement was satisfactory until recently changing to good!
AnonyMouse_3307 Posted January 4, 2014 Posted January 4, 2014 This is where we struggle Catma! Our outcomes in KS1 and 2 mean that we're unlikely to ever get a grading of 'Outstanding' as a whole school however good EYFS is. Add to that Ofsted reports that focus on Phonics, literacy and numeracy in EYFS and then get a couple of lines in a final report and you are up against it! We've visited other settings which are Outstanding and have felt that in the case of nurseries attached to achools it was the KS1 and 2 that made them outstanding, and in the case of a nursery/infant school they excelled by not having a KS2 to worry about! I have come across a nursery attached to a school recently which advertises itself as 'outstanding' which is an LA judgement of the nursery alone, whilst the Ofsted judgement was satisfactory until recently changing to good! I suppose I would say that you just have to accept you are not separate organisation but are simply a class in a school! The year 3 teachers might feel the same way! The whole judgement for a school is predicated on the experience children would have across their entire time in it - if this is variable the school can hardly be judged outstanding really!! I look at maintained nursery schools often to get the school context (they are inspected in the same way as any other school) but as you say can develop the innovative practice because they only focus on EYFS. I would also say it is a bit disingenuous of a school to use an LA rating when Ofsted are now the sole arbiters of judgement!
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