How long should it take to turn around a failing school?

[thesnootyfox]

Just wondering...

[Startail]

Depends on why it's failing? Special measures is supposed to work in 18 months, but if the school is failing due to totally disinterested pupils and parents and/or really serious social deprivation then you may it's a long hard slog.

You can do amazing things in difficult areas, but it needs sustained long term effort from nursery upwards.

[thesnootyfox]

It's my nieces and nephews school. The parents and pupils are very happy with the way the school is being managed. The head has made some very positive changes including getting rid of a lot of the dead wood!

The results are improving although they were above average anyway. It's just had an OFSTED report and it isn't good, it has been put under a notice to improve. According to OFSTED the teaching isn't consistently good and the results aren't good enough. My sil also teaches at the school and she says there is a real positive vibe around the school and everyone is very committed. They are all disappointed with the latest OFSTED findings.

[BackforGood]

OFSTED are often fixated on a particular thing - say the 'value added', and in a way, for real impact, the children need to have benefited from the changes for more than just a year, for it to make a real difference. So after the first, or even 2nd year, the children have spent most of their time under the old ways, so the changes might not have been big enough to make a real impact IYSWIM.
I think what's interesting, is to find out what they are putting in place, to address those actions that have been identified.

[thesnootyfox]

Thanks. In this case it does seem to be the value added score that is an issue with Ofsted. The report does state that the school is showing evidence of improvement and has the capacity to improve further.

[lljkk]

If SIL feels good enough about the school to send her own kids there that speaks volumes for what she thinks of the true quality of teaching.

[thesnootyfox]

Sil said 4 years ago before the new head was in place she would have considered alternatives but now she wouldn't send them anywhere else.

[BackforGood]

I would find that HUGELY reassuring then.

[Talkinpeace]

If its an LEA school, two terms usually seems to turn things around.

If its an academy there is little or no data - and some of what there is does NOT reassure

[Startail]

It's way to early to say anything about academies as there are new style academies that have gone in and out of SM fairly quickly and others in, perhaps, more difficult areas that have had real problems.

[Startail]

link

[christinarossetti]

I think it depends on what actually happens on those two terms, talking.

If it's the same old SLT and governing body making the same old excuses, they two terms is going to make no difference, regardless of the status of the school.

[Talkinpeace]

christina
if its an LEA school, the chances of SMT and GB staying in place are zilch - therefore change will come

if its not an LEA school, the sponsor has to accept the problem
and / or a fee has to be arranged to sort it
and / or the dfee need to find the resources to intervene

not holding my breath

[christinarossetti]

That's not true, talking. There;s a school near me which went into special measures well over a year ago and the same head. governing body and SLT are in place.

[Talkinpeace]

christina
that is unusual - and if I was sober I'd take about ten minutes to track it down
because the vast majority of SM come from weaknesses in management rather than teaching

on the other hand, academies that have gone into SM seem to stay there because of their nature - which in a sensible world would put them under the full control of the (council elected) accountable LEA
but the academy system has broken that link and not replaced it with another

[christinarossetti]

Gove did mention the possibility of LAs taking back 'under achieving' academies some time ago. It seems clear that Wilshaw and his mob aren't going to put up with the status quo as he's been talking about putting whole academy chains into 'special measures'.

Bonkers the whole thing.

[Talkinpeace]

link please about handing academies to LA

[christinarossetti]

This from last April. I expect he's changed his mind by now.

www.lgcplus.com/briefings/joint-working/education/gove-councils-could-sponsor-failing-academies/5044170.article

[Talkinpeace]

its firewalled and i'd not regards the lgs as a reliable reporter - any othe links to same speech

[bangwhizz]

The real problem is to the schools reputation.Lots of the 'right sort' of parents will pull their Dc out (By right sort I mean involved parents who care about their Dcs education ) and you are left with a high percentage of -well I don't know how to put it politically correctly but YKWIM and that starts off a downward spiral.
Local small primary school to us had about 60 children.After a bad osted the parents organised an unofficial meeting in the pub and the next morning 20 kids were pulled out.
Despite a massive cash injection into the facilities and new head, it was years before the stigma lifted.

[christinarossetti]

Is it firewalled? I can see it. I found this through a bit of googling, though remember reading it in a broadsheet (possibly Telegraph) last year.

[Talkinpeace]

I can only see the headline, not the article ...