Hi,

I'm Laura and I have been allocated as your mentor. Please feel free to message me via here for any support/questions you may have. I can also check your submissions. I will always aim to reply as soon as possible and at least within the 72 hour time frame.

I recommend reading all of the user guide and FAQ's first in the resource section and then printing off the exemplications for each section. This will enable you to reflect on your practice across the nursery with the staff team and identify any gaps.

The survey for managers and staff is also a great tool for you to use to support the journey and it is advised this is done at the start. Once all staff have completed this you will receive a summary showing where your staff are. The awarded settings found this really beneficial.

Once the above is in place I would then suggest starting to complete the online audits with reflective answers. Try to analyse what you do and why rather than just state lists or links to documents.

Remember you also have access to an online self reflection course.

You have 12 months to complete Quality Counts and I'm here if you need anything.

Any urgent enquiries or IT issues should be sent to NDNA direct.

Happy reflecting on practice, wishing you all the best on your Quality Counts journey!

Kind Regards,
Laura

Hi Laura,
We're truly happy to have you as our mentor; hopefully this journey be filled with joy and success.
Thank you for all your insightful recommendations, all taken into consideration. However, we have some inquiries about several areas of the accreditation process, which can be illustrated as follows:

1- The toolbox templates, do we have to submit them? or are they just self-reflective tools?

2- The Action plans 1,2,3 that are included in the toolbox templates, what's the purpose of them, what kind of areas should be covered in this sort of template?

3- In Play & Learning atatements 1.3.1 (There are observations of the learning environment including what children access and what they don’t.) what do they mean by accessible and non-accessible learning environment?

4- In Play & Learning statements 1.5.1 (Observations show practitioners understand how to extend children’s interests and when to leave children alone.) We have very young children in the age group of 0-1, our concerns are that young children may not be able to explore their interest as they have limited abilities to talk, learn and play, comparing to other age groups, we're talking about 3 months old, so please could you explain to me (in details) about this statement?

Thank you very much for your time and attention.

Hi,

I'm sorry for the delay in responding, the system isn't showing which setting has messaged, head office are trying to sort this but in future again if I do not respond please email Gregg. Please see responses to your queries below.

1- the toolbox templates have PDF/Word copies of the actually audits that you complete on the computer so you can print them out and share them with the staff team so they can see all the standards. This encourages everyone to work together, share ideas and then one person can be responsible for submitting the responses online

2 - The action plans are to be used as you go through the criteria to make actions of what else you need to do, especially to meet the well embedded, for example an action point to complete observations of the environment and then assign to someone to implement this and a date to complete by

3 - 1.3.1 - this means observations of children and what they are playing with, evaluate this to see if there are any areas of the environment or activities/resources that they are not engaging with so you can evaluate why and make changes to further support your environment and children's learning, e.g. your observations may show you that children are not accessing 'creative' area, this may be that you do not have enough resources there or where it is positioned, improving this area may ensure the children engage with it more and develop skills such as cutting, painting etc.

4 - you can do this across the age ranges just explaining how you ensure there is a good mix of child led and adult led focusing on children's interests, I'm sure even for the younger babies you can give some examples, such as a preference to be held, lay, playing with own hands, comforters, baby gyms, mirrors and how you support this.

Please let me know if you have any further questions,

Thanks
Laura

Hi Laura
Thank you for your response and explanation, we're so grateful for you.

In regard to the toolbox templates, we have further question about where to submit them? Because we couldn't find a section customized for submitting the templates.

Aside from the toolbox templates, you've advised us to start with the survey first. So, our question is: does the survey have a score to count within the Quality Counts assessment process for our nursery? like if the responses did not meet certain criteria, will this going to affect our chance to attain the accreditation? even if it's a minor effect?

Thank you again for your time and attention.

Hi Laura,
We have one more question:

Is there a certain format of answering the audits? or a preferred way of describing the statements. If so, please can you give me an explanation about it?

Thank you

Hi again,
Sorry of the inconveniences,
We have to ask about more questions,

1- In the survey of both maneger and practitioners, there is an input for the Survey Code, so, what is the Survey Code and how can we get it and where?


2- Do our all responses have to be "well-ebedded" to attain the accreditation? Or is it okay to be well embeded in some areas, and working toward\meeting in others?

3- I actually did not understand the order of submiting the audits and the toolbox templates which one we have to start by first?

4- Regarding the evidence, is it okay if we provide pictures of children that demonstrate certain statements as an evidence? or have to be an assesments\observations documents of the nurserey?

5- What is the difference between the Certification Mark and Quality Counts award?

Thank you

Hi,

Please see answers to your questions below:

1- In the survey of both maneger and practitioners, there is an input for the Survey Code, so, what is the Survey Code and how can we get it and where?
I will ask NDNA to send you this.


2- Do our all responses have to be "well-embedded" to attain the accreditation? Or is it okay to be well embedded in some areas, and working toward\meeting in others?

There are 2 levels to quality counts, you can be just award or there is a higher exemplary one, this is achieved by having everything well embedded so the more you meet at this level the more chance you have of achieving the higher level. It is expected that you have some actions at this stage but then on the assessment visit you can tell the assessor what you have done and how they are now embedded. You can also go back to you audit and add more information as you work through.

3- I actually did not understand the order of submiting the audits and the toolbox templates which one we have to start by first?

There is no order, you can chose which you work on, you may want to share them out to staff with different areas of expertise, for example you work through the leadership and management but let those in the rooms look at the play one.

4- Regarding the evidence, is it okay if we provide pictures of children that demonstrate certain statements as an evidence? or have to be an assesments\observations documents of the nurserey?

There is no requirement to upload pictures of the children or assessment/observations. The only evidence you need to upload is detailed in the documents section.

5- What is the difference between the Certification Mark and Quality Counts award?

There is an option to only purchase the audits but you have purchased the full quality counts, which includes the full certification mark.


Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks,
Laura

Hi Laura
Thank you for your response and explanation, we're so grateful for you.

NOTE: These questions listed above haven't been answered, can you answer them please?


1- In regard to the toolbox templates, we have further question about where to submit them? Because we couldn't find a section customized for submitting the templates.

2- Aside from the toolbox templates, you've advised us to start with the survey first. So, our question is: does the survey have a score to count within the Quality Counts assessment process for our nursery? like if the responses did not meet certain criteria, will this going to affect our chance to attain the accreditation? even if it's a minor effect?

3- Is there a certain format of answering the audits? or a preferred way of describing the statements. If so, please can you give me an explanation about it?

Thank you again for your time and attention