Your Ofsted Inspection Guide – being prepared

What do Ofsted Expect to see?

Ofsted may ask to see a variety of documentation when they come to inspect a setting, so ensure you have these in an easily accessible place. All documentation should be kept up to date and be well organised. There are a variety of ways people choose to keep documentation and various different formats. As long as they are clear, easy to understand, and up to date Ofsted will not mind the format you choose. Have a look at the list below, you may find it useful to print this off and use it as a checklist against your own documents so you can highlight any that are missing or out dated.

• List of all practitioners and their qualifications; this must detail those who have paediatric first aid.
• List/register of all children and their dates of births
• Proof of staffing arrangements; some form of staff rota
• Details of any children who are attending the setting on that day that are not included on the register
• Details of any pre-planned disruption to the visit such as an outing off site.
• DBS documents of all staff
• Records of accidents, poor behaviour, children removed from roll due to exclusion
• Log of any incidents of discrimination
• Record of complaints and resolutions
• Safeguarding policies
• Risk assessments, Fire Safety and all other health and safety documents
• Safeguarding referrals made to designated lead and outcomes
• List of children who have an open case with social services and multi agency team
• The Supervision of staff
• Training and continuous professional development of staff
• External evaluation and self evaluation documents

Day of the arrival

On the day of arrival the Ofsted inspector should introduce themselves and provide you with a form of identification. You may then choose to contact the Ofsted office to ensure they have sent an inspector out to you. After this the inspector will then speak to the manager/owner briefly to gather some details. The inspector will want to:

• Confirm all details and identify any changes to the settings information
• Ask about any staff absences for the day and the children on roll
• Display inspection notice so parents are aware that an Ofsted inspection is taking place
• Discuss times for inspection activities to take place and also any observations. You will be given the opportunity to part in an observation, your response will be logged
• Be given a tour of the premises, any issues that arise will be brought to light
• Set a time to discuss self evaluation form and other management and leadership issues
• Make arrangements for feedback
• Make arrangements to talk to any parents
• Ask for details of staff qualifications – This is where having your documents listed above prepared and up to date will help you out.

During the inspection

During the inspection the Ofsted inspector will spend as much time as possible in each area of the setting gathering details of how the quality of teaching and learning. Look at the Ofsted inspection guide to establish what is necessary to gain ‘outstanding’ They will be observing:

• How the children play
• Talk to children and practitioners about the activities on offer
• Observe the interaction between children and practitioner
• Detail how the children interact and their level of understanding with the activities
• Talk to practitioners about assessments, children’s level of development and next steps
• Observe care routines
• Evaluate practitioners knowledge of the EYFS

Inspectors are required to sample a group of children’s learning and development documents, this must be a minimum of two children. This will require details of any starting points and development tracking tools for the children and the child’s progress. They will want to see evidence of:

• Practitioners knowledge of each child
• Progress check at 2 if relevant
• Impact of pupil premium for those receiving it
• Development tracking tools/records and records of concerns
• Child’s starting points eg on entry assessments
• Development in the prime areas

Use this quick guide as a tool in preparing for your Ofsted inspection. It may also be useful for practitioners to have a copy as well as management in order for everyone to feel prepared and to know what is expected of them. Further details on Ofsted inspections can be found here.