At Childminding UK we have been supporting childminders for over 30 years. A registered charity, we are the only national organisation that solely supports childminders and we have recently achieved the Princess Royal Training Award for ‘Ensuring high quality childcare through training and support’.
There is a myth that Ofsted do not require written observations any more. The truth is that Ofsted no longer want to see them during an inspection.
We are often asked how many observations childminders are expected to record if any, what is the best method of sharing observations with parents and that if Ofsted don’t ask for observations at inspection, then why do childminders need to produce them at all?
The answers to these questions depend on:
- the size of the childminding setting;
- how many children are cared for;
- the childminder’s experience;
- the amount of time parents have to receive information about their child’s learning;
- the ability of the childminder to retain and relay information about learning and development for each child;
- the confidence of the childminder to relay information about learning and development during inspection.
We know that in the past, many childminders would keep loads of written information about children’s learning because they felt that Ofsted would be looking for certain things to be recorded.
We also know that in many cases, more information was written down than was actually used. This often created an admin burden that was completed in the childminders’ own family time, but childminders didn’t want to risk being ‘downgraded’ if they didn’t have paper observations ‘just right’.
Section 2 of the EYFS clearly states that ‘assessment plays an important part in helping parents, carers and practitioners to recognise children’s progress’, Practitioners must know ‘children’s levels of achievement’ and use ‘their own day to day observations about children’s progress and observations that parents and carers share’. It also is clear that ‘assessment should not entail prolonged breaks from interaction with children, nor require excessive paperwork’
This change was made largely to prevent excessive paperwork and stress around recording observations but also because Ofsted can clearly see learning and development taking place as they see the interactions you have with children during inspection. Ofsted will talk to you about why you do what you do and what you are aiming the children will learn from it and how you know, so they don’t need to see written observations to carry out your inspection.
However, this doesn’t mean that Ofsted are suggesting that childminders don’t need written observations. All childminders retain much more information about a child’s level of learning and development in their minds than was ever written down and it is up to you to decide what written records you need.
Everything you record should benefit the child. It is usual to record information about what you notice the children are doing. It may help to link to the areas of learning so you can see where children are progressing and where any gaps are. This helps you to then plan activities and experiences to fill these gaps.
Some childminders also record the characteristic of effective teaching and learning as this shows you children’s preferred learning style. Children always learn more when they are interested in what they are doing. Some will include children’s schematic behaviour or their well-being and involvement levels.
Most childminders will record the children’s next steps- to aid their learning further and help parents continue this learning at home. Ofsted will ask you about children’s next steps and may also ask parents what their child’s next steps are.
What you need to do is decide for yourself what information you need to record for you to plan for children’s learning and to share this with parents. You will not be expected to record anything else.
