With the restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, all of the scheduled regional Ofsted Big Conversation meetings were cancelled/postponed leaving a big gap in the regular commentary between the Sector and Ofsted.
June O’Sullivan, National Chair and Founder organised what was initially thought to be a ‘small’ Zoom session providing the opportunity for interested parties in the Sector to engage with two representatives from Ofsted, Gill Jones and Wendy Ratcliff plus a Keynote presentation from Julian Grenier around the update of Development Matters, due to be released in September 2020.
The response for places was overwhelming, so the event was upgraded to a webinar and on the day there were nearly 500 present, eager to engage and hear the updates.
For full details, recording of the event, copies of the presentations and the top ten questions for each of the presentations please visit the Ofsted Big Conversation website; June O’Sullivan has also written a blog, Zooming to a National OBC Conversation containing her feedback, summary and the Top ten questions
The event started well enough with the joint presentation from Gill and Wendy, covering very much what was expected around Ofsted visits, the relaxation of EYFS, registration visits and how Inspectors would act when visiting provisions. Here are a few of the main points:
- Monitoring visits for provisions who received an ‘RI’ or ‘Inadequate’ are due to commence in September 2020; these will not be full inspections and a judgement will not be entered however a summary of the visit may be published on the Provision’s Ofsted record page
- ‘Normal Inspection visits’ should commence in January 2021 although they may try to fit in some visits in December 2020
- Ofsted are trying to complete the 30 month registration visit from now
- Complaints will be investigated as normal
- Inspectors will contact provisions ahead of their visits to find out about the provision’s Health and Safety procedures and will comply when visiting
The second part of the event was a presentation from Julian Grenier, providing an update on the revision of Development Matters which is due to be published / released in September 2020.
The Chat facility was filled with comments and questions around the points made during Julian’s presentation and lots of questions; June has collated the top ten questions and their answers in her blog.
To read the chat from the session, please click on the link below:
National OBC – Transcript of Zoom Chat
To keep the chat in the context of the session, the film is published below.
Copies of Presentations can be viewed from the Ofsted Big Conversation Website, along with the recording of the meeting as above.
Further Reading & Links – Development Matters
The further reading and links relating to Ofsted and also as mentioned by Julian can be found in the Ofsted Big Conversation website and also on June’s blog, the article and video clip below relate to interviews with Julian by Early Education and Famly.
Early Education: An interview with Julian Grenier: The Early Years Foundation Stage, what matters?
The Famly Interview: Julian Grenier Reveals Development Matters Plans