Our Ofsted Experience Hitchin House Day Nursery

Climbing wall at Hitchin House Day Nursery - Taken from their Facebook page on 05/09/2022

I recently caught up with the wonderful Zoe Wright, Operations Director for Hitchin House Day Nursery. They have recently had an Ofsted inspection and she wanted to share their experience. And how her and her team managed the inspection on the day.

“Firstly, I would like to say that they did what they said on the tin!”

Like many of us Zoe was concerned about the Ofsted inspection, we have many bad, good, and in-between experiences in the sector, which can leave us feel anxious and unsure about what will happen on the day. However, Zoe was very keen to share with myself and others that they really did do what they said they would do in the Early Years Inspection Framework. This is something that I am hearing quite a lot at the moment, which I think is a positive step towards the consistency that has often concerned us all.

The Day Before the Inspection

Hitchin House Day Nursery have been anticipating their first ever Ofsted Inspection since opening and when Zoe’s mobile rang at around midday from a private number. She said, “that will be Ofsted!” and she was not wrong. The inspector went through and gathered the various checklists of information that is highlighted in the Early Years Inspection Framework and said that they would discuss their Covid-19 measures when in attendance the following day.

“As I began talking the staff, just placed the prompt sheet in front of me, I was so grateful!”

Zoe had created a prompt sheet to support her colleagues in case it was not her that answered the phone. But in the moment of nerves and excitement this also came in very handy for Zoe and is a great idea to pass onto other early years settings as you plan and prepare for your inspection. Within the phone call they also arranged the time that 2 inspectors (due to the size of the setting) would arrive the following day 7:30 am! An early day for them all!

In preparation for the next day, they didn’t do anything special as a nursery, they informed the staff. Some volunteered to come in as extra the following day, excited to be part of the team and in it together ready for their inspection. All the senior and middle leaders went out for a meal that night together, not to discuss Ofsted although they were welcome to, but to have that time together and support well-being.

Inspection Day

The setting had two inspectors that literally worked in tandem throughout the day, making the inspection seamless and the most effective use of time. One of the inspectors was named the lead inspector. They split up the daily activities and tasks between them, regularly reviewing timings and having points of the day where they caught up and checked in with each other.

Eve the nursery manager was the best person to do the learning walk, enthusing her passion and making the very most of every single opportunity.

“Think Carefully about who does the learning walk, who is the best person to make the most of every opportunity and sell your setting!”

Whilst doing the learning walk that took about 2 hours (Hitchin House is a large setting with lots of amazing things to see!), Eve would stop to do things such as highlight good practice as they saw it happening. Zoe discussed how it was crucial that she was “using every room to cover aspects of the early years inspection framework!” Meaning that Eve managed to get lots of details in about the setting and have some clear effective conversations. The Ofsted inspector also commented as a key point on how effectively the 3I’s: Intent, Implementation and Impact were covered within the learning walk.

“Use every room to cover aspects of the early years inspection framework”.

She also used the learning walk as a chance to share how the needs of children are met, to discuss children with special educational needs and disabilities and examples of excellent practise. As well as covering a minor complaint that the setting had received, safeguarding children and adults and reiterating the ethos of the setting. She also highlighted a strength of the setting in coaching and mentoring by supporting a new member of staff in front of Ofsted. This is a great way of highlighting to Ofsted and them seeing how we supervise and support staff to grow and develop, so don’t shy way from making the most of those learning opportunities for staff like you normally would because of Ofsted are watching. As a sub text of this Eve was then able to cover safer recruitment, induction, and supervision through sharing the new member of staff’s file.

While the learning walk was occurring the second inspector was with Zoe talking about the recent complaint and safeguarding. She also took the time to talk 1 on 1 about safeguarding with a member of staff who wanted to speak to the inspector, and this was arranged so it could happen. Zoe talked about how although we may want to shy away from complaints, that it was beneficial for them to keep that at the forefront of all of what they were sharing; rather then brushing under the carpet.

“Face complaints head on, do not shy away from them.”

A staff member volunteered themselves to be the member that was being observed doing the joint observation and was doing a sing and sign session with a group of children. Zoe the operations director again used this as an opportunity to support one of the middle leaders in the growth and development, by asking them their feedback and encouraging them to share what they thought about what had just been observed. This again, was able to show a strength of the setting in coaching and mentoring, but also the wider ability of staff to be reflective and evaluative of practise.

They tracked two children throughout the setting one child with SEND and the also wanted to track the newest child to the setting. It was only her 2nd day, but they were impressed with how well the staff knew they key child and how the child could not be picked out from the other children. They spoke to staff about the children, they didn’t have to see any paperwork, or ask for anything specific, just like they said they don’t. Although, one inspector did share she didn’t have to but would love to look out of nosiness (this would so be me as an inspector!).

At around 12:30 pm they re-met and discussed the itinerary for the rest of the day that the management meet with going to be at 2 pm, and the feedback at 2:30 pm. They just wanted some time again in tandem to go around and explore the different rooms and areas of the setting. They also shared that in order to write something in a report they have to see it, so for example, to talk about the climbing wall they had to see children on the climbing wall. They were also asked to “go away and tell them what makes there setting different.” For when they got back together to discuss.

The 2 pm, meeting only took half an hour because Eve had done such a fantastic job of covering most things as part of the learning walk. And then they were into feedback. We can’t share this yet, as their report is not published, but as soon as I have seen it I will share it with you all.

All in all, the inspection was a very pleasant experience for the setting and was all over by 3:30 pm, again keeping to the time frame that is outlined within the early year’s inspection framework. Zoe also shared that they had done a lot of online research beforehand, looking at a variety of websites for example, google, day nurseries, website, Instagram and Facebook.

“Make sure that you have a good internet presence and that it is also good for professionals. And address any bad reviews.”