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Essay Unit 11 - The Early Years Foundation Stage
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Ella CockcroftUnit 11
The Early Years Foundation stage
Introduction:
Over the next two years I am having work placement in a variety of settings. They have a
large number of staff and regularly have work placement students and apprentices; I am
one of them. The manager of the settings has asked me to make a portfolio with all details
across the different aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage that could be used with the
other students and apprenticeships, to help them understand the importance of meeting
these requirements.
These include, nurseries, pre-schools, childminders, forest schools, reception classes and
Montessori.
P1
The legal status of the Early Years Foundation Stage and process of inspection
Legally, the EYFS is part of these laws; The learning and development requirements are
given legal force by an Order made under section 39 (1)(a) of the Childcare Act 2006 and
The safeguarding and welfare requirements are given legal force by Regulations made under
section 39(1)(b) of the Childcare Act 2006.
A Bradbury, The Early Years Foundation stage March 21, Learning Matters
The EYFS are a compulsory requirement that must be followed by law in Early years settings.
All early year’s settings that follow the curriculum are inspected by Ofsted in England.
Ofsted inspect a setting to ensure that the setting is being compliant to the laws such as
Childcare Act 2006 and that the setting is a safe environment for education and children.
Early years settings only get short notice of an Ofsted inspection so that they can’t cover up
any issues in the setting, and Ofsted can see the true transparency of the setting. The reason
why a notice period is given is to ensure that settings can get together the preparations, for
example parent questionaries given out and collected in on the setting (an example could be
whether they feel their child is safe at the setting).
Ofsted and the inspectorates of independent schools have regard to the Early Years
Foundation Stage (EYFS) in carrying out inspections and report on the quality and standards
of provision. Ofsted publishes inspection reports at www.gov.uk/ofsted. Ofsted may issue
actions (in respect of any failure to meet a requirement in the document) and/or may issue
a welfare requirement notice (in respect of section 3). It is an offence for a provider to fail to
comply with welfare requirements notice. Early years childminder agencies are also under a
duty to have regard to the EYFS in the exercise of their functions.
A Bradbury, The Early Years Foundation stage March 21, Learning Matters
Settings need to prepare for Ofsted inspections they do this by:
Making sure all admin is up to date
o Records of fire alarm tests and evacuation rehearsals- tested weekly and
evacuation rehearsals once per half term
o Names in policies- name roles, for example senco or manager make sure that
those names are current
o Central staff record – all current staff listed and not previous staff
o Dates on polices – review dates and they are in future, if not update
Count your children-
o How many children are on roll?
o How many of them speak English as an additional language?
I declare that all the work in this assignment is my own and any copied materials is clearly
referenced
Signed: e.cockcroft
,Ella Cockcroft
Unit 11
The Early Years Foundation stage
o How many of them are looked after children?
o How many of them are from armed forces families?
First impressions matter
o Don’t let staff forget to sign the inspectors in
o Do they have a visitor badge? They need to be treated like a visitor
o Don’t forget to introduce yourself
Work out when your due an inspection
o Usually 24 hours’ notice but try and prep when due one
o 6-year cycle
o When received a complaint or failed to meet a key standard- triggered if
failed to meet EYFS standards
Work with team on
A key part of an inspection requires a setting to be aware of their own developmental
issues, for example mentioning they are working on their outdoor area for improvement.
Be aware of what they are not very good at and have a plan to change that. All inspections
will involve some observations by an inspector and therefore they should practice being
observed and observing.
There will be a joint inspection where they will invite the setting manager
Get staff members used to being observed
Use it in your reflection
Engage with parents before an inspection, as Ofsted will always speak to parents and
carers in the setting with how satisfied they are with the service. Some parents are
even called In for a meeting to discuss their feelings with the inspectors.
Make sure website is up to date- having up to date staff lists and it’s a good idea to
have a page with all the Ofsted information that the inspector will want to review.
Make sure up to date with covid guidelines, they have an obligation to ensure that
the early years providers have a safe and healthy environment. The EYFS updated in
September 2021, due to the covid laws that came into place and the changes that
needs to be made to keep it a safe setting.
Stay up to date with covid guidelines
And have a covid 19 policy
Ofsted then give each setting a grade depending on what they have achieved and give
improvement on what needs to be better before the next Ofsted inspection
Grade 1: outstanding
For a school to be outstanding, the quality of education needs to be outstanding, and all
other key judgements also need to be outstanding. Safeguarding must also be highly
effective. The outstanding grade must be met for all of the criteria, securely and
consistently. Ofsted will only give this grade if the setting is truly performing exceptionally
well.
Grade 2: good
For a good grade, inspectors will look at the quality of education and judge most of the key
areas as good or outstanding. One can also be marked at “requires improvement” as long as
its visible that the school are actively improving this. Safeguarding must also be effective.
Grade 3: requires improvement
I declare that all the work in this assignment is my own and any copied materials is clearly
referenced
Signed: e.cockcroft
,Ella Cockcroft
Unit 11
The Early Years Foundation stage
This means that the key areas the inspectors look at needs improving regarding the
effectiveness of the whole school. Safeguarding will also have weaknesses that needs
resolving, however these are being quickly resolved so no pupils leave at harm or at risk of
harm. These schools will be monitored for improvement more frequently and will need to
meet the requirements.
Grade 4: inadequate
This means that Ofsted have called the overall effectiveness of the school to be poor. Not
necessarily alongside safeguarding but safeguarding is also ineffective and is a key area for
improvement. Ofsted also have the power to shut down grade 4 schools and they will be
closely monitored for improvement.
In my Early years setting placement they achieved a grade 2, which is good. A good school is
effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils needs, pupils are well
prepared for the stage of their education, training or employment. The school are given
action points in order to improve the setting, in this case they need to work on children’s
handwriting so that it is readable, have a better marking system so that children can
respond to marking quicker and improve. Lastly, they need to ensure that the work set is
challenging enough for the pupils even of the highest ability. These action points help
improve the setting by making sure that the students learning is to their best ability and the
handwriting is clear, preparing them for general life skills and subject improvements across
all subjects. Furthermore, all students are being challenged, so every individual is working to
their highest ability, and they can make quicker improvements and progress by teachers
giving feedback quicker. This also allows teachers to know where each child is at, which
backs up giving the right level work for the ability of each child more accurate. In my
placement, I can see them doing this as they every week they collect in the phonics books
and mark/give feedback to the students for the next week.
Settings must meet the action points and prove this by the next inspection time, which is
every 6 years. If a school requires improvement they will be closely monitored and have
more frequent visits to check their improvements and to see how they are getting on with
their action plans, this will be every 2 years roughly, or may have smaller inspections and
visits.
The strengths of Ofsted are that settings graded a 3 or 4 are inspected regularly to ensure
progress is being made, they also have the power to shut down a grade 4 school if it is not
up to standards. Ofsted also don’t give notice and therefore they can always see the true
I declare that all the work in this assignment is my own and any copied materials is clearly
referenced
Signed: e.cockcroft
, Ella Cockcroft
Unit 11
The Early Years Foundation stage
scene of the setting. Ofsted also makes sure that education and all services for leaners, and
young children is to a good standard. However, the weaknesses of Ofsted include, that
services on a grade 1 or 2 are not checked frequently and therefore may not feel the need
to improve or could go downhill after an inspection. Ofsted visits also put a lot of pressure
on practitioners and therefore it could not fully reflect their ability. Ofsted, also create a lot
of work and creates a tick box culture, which doesn’t work in all settings and therefore may
be seen as unfair.
My supervisor at my settings opinion on Ofsted is: that they didn’t have loads to say and
therefore it didn’t change anything for the Early Years team, which my supervisor found
helpful, as they mainly focused on the upper school. However when they have had early
years advisors come in that is helpful as they can share ideas and point out what is going
well and what isn’t. However, Ofsted are good at ensuring the early years team is safe and
running as it should be. https://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/primaryeducation/2016/03/23/ofsted-
the-pros-and-the-cons/ One of the more positive aspects is, whether we want to admit it or not,
school inspections do serve a useful purpose. They help ensure that everyone is up to standard
and doing their jobs correctly, and also help pinpoint any key areas for development. Everyone
requires some feedback t some pint, as it’s all part of developing and improving.
This leads on to my next point: the inspections themselves helps pinpoint any areas of weakness a
school may have. These areas may well have been neglected by human error or may just be
things that need to become a primary focus. However, whatever the reason the feedback will
always have some grounding and will always be made explicit in a report, which helps provide
areas for the school to develop upon.
This being said though, whichever way you view OFSTED, it cannot be denied that for the most
part, they have a fairly negative reputation. OFSTED are, for a lack of a better word, feared by
teachers and educational institutions, and it could be argued that no one should have to “fear”
feedback if it is informative and effective. This can be seen as severe negative against OFSTED
and is definitely something that, if changed, would help OFSTED severely.
If there is one negative of OFSTED that I can justify from personal experience is that the stress
that OFSTED causes is definitely intense, and some may argue that the cost is too great. As soon
a s a school receives the call that OFSTED are coming in then everyone in the school begins to
stress out, and this stress does not die down for at least a few days. This can be seen as a severe
negative against OFSTED.
In conclusion, OFSTED has both positive and negative aspects to it. I have tried to retain a
neutral perspective throughout this article and hopefully this came across! Regardless of how you
view OFSTED personally, it cannot be denied there are both positives and negatives behind them.
Thank you for reading the article, and keep watching the page for my next article!
I agree with this report as Ofsted creates a huge fear and stress on staff members which is a
huge negative as it affects the mental health and pressures of everyone in the setting.
However, Ofsted are good at allowing schools to recognise their weaknesses and be able to
improve and work on their setting, as they can give advice and show the setting
modern/updated ways on learning and teaching to improve the setting as a whole.
I declare that all the work in this assignment is my own and any copied materials is clearly
referenced
Signed: e.cockcroft
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