FSFRebecca

June O'Sullivan (Chief executive  LEYF nurseries) has written this extremely insightful article in her LEYF blog which address the potential impact of the new Education Inspection Framework. Interestingly, she notes that inspectors already have an eye on the new framework whilst conducting inspections under the 'old' requirements and advises us to be 'ready now'. Training courses to help settings 'prepare' for the new framework are already popping up all over the country (NDNA are advertising the need for new courses as existing ones are selling out fast) as providers seek to get themselves in shape for September's roll out. Early Education too have commented on the new framework welcoming the move away from data and celebrating the turn towards the quality of the education being provided.

You can read both articles by clicking through the links:

READY, STEADY: THE NEW EDUCATION INSPECTION FRAMEWORK HAS ARRIVED

Ofsted's revised EIF: what's changed since the consultation?

As many of us in nursery are planning for sensitive and careful transition into Reception FSF Jules has written this fabulous article which encourages us to take the same well-planned, empathetic approach for the children who are finishing their Reception year and are readying themselves for the mysteries of Year 1. In her article, Jules reminds us to start thinking about transition to Year 1 early in the Reception year to enable us to manage the expectations of the children, parents and the teachers in both EYFS and KS1.

Preparing for good transition from Reception to Year 1

Hello AJ76,

Welcome to the FSF! Well done on asking your first question!  I'm going to move your post into the'ideas' area so that more people see it and might give you some motivation! I quite like the Imagination tree for ideas of fun things to stimulate senses! Let us know what you find!

We were in the same boat - we moved away from hourly rates and looked at putting all permanent staff onto salaries and have introduced a TOIL system to cover overtime / undertime. We looked at the pay scales for staff in neighbouring local authorities and pitched ourselves competitively. Having a clear pay scale made it much easier to justify/discuss why some people were paid one thing and some paid another. We couldn't possibly look at the +10%, +30% differences - we have differences between 1% and 5% (based on qualifications) of NMW as our differentators. We also put into place 'responsibility points' like the teachers pay scale so that staff who took on extra responsibilities could be paid an additional amount in recognition of their work. We had a long period of consultation and so far (2 months in), our staff are happy. We will have to reflect this in our fee increase to parents - we haven't had a fee increase for 2 years.

Happy birthday Cait 

We have just published an article by Dr Lala Manners which takes the idea of risk and challenge play into a new sphere - that which engages parents. We can work as hard and as well as we can to support and motivate children to take risks but getting their parents and carers on board might be more problematic! In this insightful article Lala gives us some useful background which might explain why parents feel anxious and gives us hints and tips on how to help them see the benefit of such challenging play.

Supporting parents to understand the benefits of ‘risky’ play

My understanding is that the Registered Person is the Owner or the representative of the owning company (see here) If the Registered Person is leaving, the company must nominate a new person, that cannot be the manager unless the manager is also part of the company. So: your Manager can be nominated person but not registered person unless they are a director of the company, or a  trustee or a committee member. Does that help?

Hi Jackjill18,

I'm going to move your post to the SEN area as EasyPeasy (the area where you have posted is a specific Tapestry function). I hope you'll get more responses from there! 

It would make sense that a valid code gave immediate access to funding. I'll ask a few questions and find out why (other than an 'ease of admin' reason) that it is the case. I'll see what I can find out.

15 hours ago, finleysmaid said:

If you are a registered charity you will need trustees/directors (but you might only need a couple!!)

If anyone is having issues and is in the vicinity of Windsor and maidenhead I would be happy to stand as a member of a committee/trustee! …..

perhaps we could all support each other and offer help to other setting...creating centres of excellence between us

You're such a hero! What a great idea!

We use things that one might identify as 'themes' or 'topics' as starters - so our role play has recently been a dentist's surgery as we had a visit from a local dentist. We don't, however, work it to the extreme like one used to in the 'olden days'. Although the merits of topic/theme working are many from a staff point of view (you can think about how you're going to cover all 17 aspects while you're sitting at home and plan appropriately differentiated activities to suit) it rather comes unstuck when/if a child isn't motivated by the chosen theme. I think now, as finleysmaid has said, we 'theme' around current interests and plan exciting and enriching activities to motivate and inspire - and we might have many 'themes' running all at once - and some might more appropriately be identified as schema or dispositions (e.g mixing and pouring, transporting or containing)

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has released a worrying report identifying great uncertainty over recruitment and retention, with growing reports of workers switching to the retail sector, in order to secure more favourable working conditions. The report, 'The early years workforce: A comparison with retail workers', highlights a worrying trend of effectively decreasing wages in the childcare and education sector (due to rises in cost of living etc) and the increasing of wages in the retail sector. Coupled with the availability and range of the retail opportunities against the requirement for qualifications in the childcare sector workers the EPI predicts a bleak outlook for our sector.

Does the EPI report reflect our own experience? Have you had staff leaving for the retail sector?

49 minutes ago, FNDN said:

Hi all,

We are in the process of preparing to advertise for our first apprentice and I wanted to grab some advice off here. I understand that apprentices under 18 cannot work for more than 8 hours per day OR over 40 hours per week. We ideally need the apprentice to work 3 long days (7.15-6.15), 1 shorter day (7.15-1.15) and one day off (we will of course entitle them to the necessary breaks etc).

Am I able to employ them for the longer days? I know that it is over the 8 hours a day BUT they are working less than the 40 hours throughout the whole week? I really want to make sure that I am getting right!

Any advice would be much appreciated

TIA

I'm not sure about whether the 8 hours a day can be changed. You'd have to speak to their training provider I would think. We have only ever employed our new apprentices for around 25 hours a week (5 hours a day) with an additional 5 hours paid for offsite studying. I'd be reluctant to employ a young person for 3 x 11 hour days, it seems rather a lot. Does the 39 hours you are proposing include the 20% paid 'off the job' training? Don't forget also that if they are u18 they cannot be used in your ratios until you are confident that they are 'competent and responsible' (so not when they have just started their training - we don't include our apprentices in our ratios until the final term of their training). I'd be interested to hear what you find out!

5 minutes ago, sunnyday said:

I thought it was seven years for HMRC - but hey I could be wrong......

Yes, looking at the HMRC website the '6 years+1' rule seems to apply - but my question is does that mean the accounts that were submitted or the bits and pieces (technical name for receipts etc!) that went to make up the 'evidence' for the accuracy of the accounts?

On 24/04/2019 at 17:41, finleysmaid said:

I wish there was funding available!! we have 2 funding streams (as neither have or are likely to have an EHCP in place before school) ...we can access SEN funding for specifics up to £1000 per term  maximum (so that's about £14 a day!) and disability living which we may be able to get for the other child but unlikely for this one.both are young and will be with us for at least next year I think. the thing is even with funding it's still not enough to get an extra person in. The more challenging one is apparently also now enquiring about after school club....he's not even toilet trained yet and we only have 2 staff for that. I don't want to get in to an issue with discrimination but really what is anyone supposed to do. NO wonder these poor guys struggle in education. 

Having learnt through experience my view would be to make a list of all the issues on one side of a page and on the other side of the page write down what 'reasonable adjustments' you could make to accommodate their needs. You might then have a clearer picture of what you can and cannot provide for them - and what you cannot, having considered reasonable adjustments, is what you take back to your LA, to parents and maybe to local charity groups to facilitate. 

I do have all the supporting information that went with the annual business accounts (receipts / invoices etc) but I don't know why. I'm planning a 'sort out' for the summer and I can see me getting rid of it all - the accounts declare what income we had from parents and where we spent it ... everything is online (bank statements, funding details etc) I can't see why old 'petty cash' receipts and supermarket delivery receipts are of any use. I will ask our accountants and see - but my gut feeling is that 'keeping accounts' means the declared submissions, not the paper trail.

On 09/04/2019 at 12:48, zigzag said:

Very basic, but might give you an idea of what you might want to put on yours.

NEAR MISS REPORTING FORM.docx

Thank you for sharing! Is it OK to put a copy in the resource library?

FSF Jules has been delving into the theories behind Cultural capital and poses questions for us as we think about how this new terminology is to become part of the early years rubric come September 2019

The theories behind Cultural capital

Following Jules' visit to The Ofsted Big Conversation we pondered further on the question of Cultural capital.

Cultural Captial: The OBC

Have you bought a subscription to the Tate Gallery and booked a visit from a local chamber orchestra to ensure that your setting meets the expectations for Cultural capital? I do hope not, I don't think that is what Ofsted mean 

Here is my view of what we should be considering when we think of Cultural capital

Considering Cultural capital

Well goodness gracious me!!! FSF has it's first podcast!!

Helen, Jules and Rebecca sat down and discussed what Ofsted could possibly mean when they talk about Cultural capital.

The link will take you through the Spotify site where you can listen to our podcast (you don't have to be a Spotify subscriber: Cultural Capital

16 minutes ago, finleysmaid said:

OOH thanks...any idea what the use home language during play one was about??? My Vietnamese is a bit rubbish  (we do have resources in other language and translations too)

You can search for the actual report using the Ofsted ref number 

Hi FNDN,

I'm not DSL at my setting but we have 5 who are fully trained so that we can be sure to have a DSL available at all times of the day (we are 07.30-18.30). I tend to go on the additional courses e.g managing allegations against staff so that I can be a useful 'sounding board' when required.

Good morning Candykell1003,

I will move your post to the research area of the forum (and delete the duplicate posts for you). Hopefully you will get some responses coming your way! I will also answer your questionnaire now!

As promised, I have been looking at inspection outcomes for the last couple of months - I've been looking in our immediate area and have listed out what the actions / recommendations have been.

Column 1 is the EY number - in case you think the improvements required / suggested sound like they might be relevant to your setting

Column 2 is the previous grade (1st letter) and then the grade awarded in this inspection.

Column 3 is the inspector - I've put their initials rather than their full names (although you would see the names if you looked up the report) - it just means they won't be found if someone 'Googled' them

The subsequent columns are self-explanatory I think! I'll keep it going, it's interesting and I think there are some definite themes!

Inspection analysis to 25th March.xlsx