Clearing up common Ofsted myths

The learning walk will take place in the rooms where you provide care and education for children. This gives you an opportunity to explain how you organise the early years curriculum.

Inspectors will also consider how effectively you use performance management and assessment to identify your own strengths and the areas for improvement in the setting. They will consider how well this focuses your professional development activities, particularly in relation to increasing children’s vocabulary and cultural capital.

An inspection may be carried out by more than one inspector. This may be because of the size or layout of the setting or the number of children on roll. Other reasons include the process of training inspectors, or for quality assurance purposes.

In these situations, the lead inspector will explain why there is more than one inspector and explain their role in the inspection.

Inspectors will meet with leaders at different points during the inspection. They will decide between them when is best to do this. If the inspection is unannounced, inspectors will usually want to meet with leaders on arrival to make arrangements for the inspection and answer any questions they may have. Inspectors will also speak with leaders and gather evidence in other ways, such as during the learning walk. These conversations will help inspectors to gather evidence about the leadership and management of the setting.

The ratio and qualification requirements apply to the total number of staff available to work directly with children.

Staffing arrangements must meet the needs of all children and ensure their safety. You must ensure that children are adequately supervised, including while eating, and decide how to deploy staff to ensure that children’s needs are met. Inspectors will assess this through their observations of routines and interactions beyond looking at formal qualifications.

No. Ofsted does not have set expectations about what words you use. However, inspectors will check that you are meeting the communication and language requirements set out in the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (EYFS).

Inspectors will check whether children are experiencing a language-rich environment and an accurate use of words over time. Informal words or less accurate words may form an occasional part of this, such as ‘doggie’ when talking about a dog or ‘ta’ for ‘thank you’, when helping a child move from using a familiar informal word to a more accurate one. As a result, an inspector would not judge a provider negatively solely on the occasional use of informal language.

However, it is important that children are exposed to accurate use of language over time. In our inspection handbook, we explain that inspectors will evaluate whether practitioners communicate well to check children’s understanding, identify misconceptions and provide clear explanations, in order to improve children’s learning.

Inspectors will use the notification call to check if they will be able to speak with parents at the inspection. They may consider the times that children and parents arrive at the setting and set aside time to speak with them. The inspector may also arrange to speak to parents by telephone if this is more convenient for parents. You should make sure you have permission from parents before sharing their telephone number with inspectors.

No. The notification call is not the start of the inspection. Paragraph 46 of the early years inspection handbook sets out what will be discussed during the notification call. It is an opportunity for you and the inspector to discuss practical issues and make arrangements for the inspection, and for you to ask any questions.

These questions should be read alongside the Early Years Inspection Handbook. These were updated earlier this year to include new questions and updated answers to existing questions. To read the full list of questions and answers, visit bit.ly/OfstedFAQs.