DD's only option is 'inadequate' school. Please help.

[Lemonsqueezeit]

Moved to a new area, and all the good/outstanding schools can't take dd. (oversubscribed). My last (and only) choice of school have offered her a place. Last ofsted report deemed the school 'inadequate'. I read the report and my eyes stung. The most awful, dreadful reviews. Bullying is said to be rife, in fact they received inadequate across the board for everything. This was in 2019.The school has since been moved to an academy. I cannot get any report on this school because they haven't been inspected yet.

Please tell me moving to an academy will help the school to improve? I genuinely feel sick.

“Maybe somebody with more knowledge could explain a little more about what these scores mean, if anything.”

You already followed the link I gave you for 2022 results.
There’s a ? to click on that explains how they’re calculated, which your posts suggest you’re literate enough to understand.

Tbh, I don’t think Ebacc and Attainment8 tell you anything more valuable than your 19% for Maths & English level 5. It’s part of the same picture - that of a school with final grades well below average.

The Progess8 was explained by another poster and is more relevant. But I’d forget the statistics and just be up front with the HOY. “Your results are way below average - what does that mean for the most academically able children?”

They may be able to show you statistics that you won’t find online - like that each year they have a top set that performs really well, but no middle ground and a lot of low performers making up the rest. I doubt it - but, I’ll just illustrating that you’ll only get that from a school, not a government website.

Please ignore this! I’ve been on 2 secondary / Y7 threads today, and mixed them up - sorry ☺️

Oh FFS, I didn’t have the right thread 🤣
Sorry - I have Covid and need someone to take away my internet privileges ☺️

The -0.7 progress is concerning, it's really quite low. 0 is average progress and as a pp said anything below -0.3 is a real concern. The 19% English and maths is also a problem.

I know it seems a long way off but if your daughter gets, say, English but not maths at GCSE, it will limit her options post 16 quite a bit, and she will have to spend time retaking maths at the expense of maybe doing something else she enjoys. Yes, there are lots of routes to uni and employment, but it may end up taking longer for her to get the qualifications she needs. Also, if she gets a grade 4 in both, she won't be funded to retake but many unis/employers etc will look for a grade 5 as a minimum.

Have you looked at the Ofsted monitoring reports yet?

Moving house won't necessarily help in terms of getting you into an oversubscribed school although it may help move you up the waiting list. In year appeals however do often succeed if you put a bit of effort into them.

I get it is difficult to prepare for an appeal whilst working in a full on job and having just moved, but the longer you leave it, the less likely it is to succeed, as the school you are appealing for may suggest that you wouldn't leave your daughter in an unsuitable school for eg a half term.

There are lots of people on Mumsnet who can help and advise.

I would strongly urge you to listen to the teachers on here saying they would not want this sort of school for their own child.

You mention a nanny- is she someone with local knowledge and contacts who could maybe put you in touch with other local parents to learn more about the school’s local reputation, observations about the other ones etc?

You asked a question about whether moving closer to one of the other schools would move you up their waiting lists. I can’t comment on that, but is there no option to move to another area that has a better school which does have places? What factors influenced your decision to live where you do?

Also, you are concerned about lack of library. Do you have a library in town that DD could use instead? Or failing that, libraries do e-book lending now so maybe you need to look into that to make sure that she pursues her love of reading. My school had a library but it was my council library where I mostly got my fiction books, and non-fiction stuff is much more widely available online these days. When I was about 15 I was also allowed to use the library of our local University, perhaps there is similar access near you?

You said there was no 6th form. Have you spoken to any of the local 6th form options to find out their views of students who come to them from your DD’s school vs other schools?

I hope you can sort things out. One thing that might be a silver lining is that if your DD does stay there and does OK in her GCSEs then I think she may have a bit of an advantage applying to University because they may take into account the school’s rating and require slightly lower grades.

Also if only option is buying books, but money is tight, Oxfam bookshops are good.

@crussont it means that the poster does not want her kids mixing with poor kids. My DS went to an absolutely shocking results wise comp think it was 25% GCSE. He came away with all A grades bar one at GCSE and then decided on a sixth form college though some friends did stay for sixth form. He got three A grades at A level.

A lot of chatter on MN about education really it’s code on how to segregate darling little whoever from the plebs. DS school had kids kicked out for drug dealing, local private school had a lot of drug issues also, they just hid it better, my friend was the school nurse and I also knew the schools pastor.

The only concern here is the bullying and that can happen at a school regardless of results. The leafy comp which on here is poorly disguised code for schools dominated by middle class kids, the sort that our friends bussed their kids to had two suicide attempts in the school toilets.

it means that the poster does not want her kids mixing with poor kids.

Where did I ever say this?!

My DS went to an absolutely shocking results wise comp think it was 25% GCSE. He came away with all A grades bar one at GCSE and then decided on a sixth form college though some friends did stay for sixth form. He got three A grades at A level.
Your DC is an outlier then for the school and to be honest the fact that a tiny number of students do well wouldn't make me want to send my children to an underperforming school that's been deemed inadequate.

I don't think anyone with common sense thinks schools in affluent, middle class areas are free from problems, but having taught in schools at both ends of the spectrum I was only assaulted in an special measures school and not in an affluent middle class one. I'd not be putting my children in a situation where the dominant culture of their peers is to be verbally abusive, at times physically abusive and where education is not valued by pupils or parents.

It has nothing to do with avoiding 'plebs' or 'poor' children, as you suggest. There are well managed schools in areas of deprivation who have good behaviour policies and good outcomes.

The problem is that some schools are poorly managed and are on an uphill battle against an established culture in the school/area that doesn't value education. With strong leadership they can be turned around, but I wouldn't be putting my children into that situation if I had another option.

All of this. I've also taught in a couple of schools, mostly serving very mixed demographics (but the demographics are comparable with each other).

The place I'm at now probably has the poorest demographic of anywhere I've worked, but is the nicest environment and has the best Progress (although not results)- and it's because of the school culture and the way SLT deal with things.

A lot of what OP describes are signs of a school in real trouble, and in the current climate, there is every chance they will lose staff and things will get worse before they get better (if they get better).

At my previous school, moving to a different MAT, which I would say is roughly equivalent to becoming an academy actually caused relatively small issues to become exacerbated, and I feel has put the school on a downwards spiral. It is not as simple as become an academy, instant improvement.

Mumsnet also seems to think schools in this situation get extra money thrown at them- they don't, and they will be paying up to 10% of their budget into a MAT central pot now, too.

Thanks everyone for taking the time out to reply.

Just received an email from the head. Yesterday, outside the school, a boy was set upon by a group of youths (not from the school) and taken to hospital with potentially serious injuries.🙁

School is maintaining its an isolated incident and the police are carrying out a full investigation.

DD also came home yesterday and some twat lad from her class had decided it would be fun to throw his drink over some of the year 7 girls, staining their jumpers.

I've just emailed the lady from my council to start the procedure of an appeal.
Does anyone have any experience of how long appeals usually take? I've read it will go to a panel, and likely be a panel hearing etc.

Any advice on the grounds I could give? DD is quite a talented artist and an avid writer. The school that I want to send her to have extra after school activities which I know she would love to do and would develop her creative writing and art that she takes seriously.

Would I (should I?) provide evidence to support my case? I've never done anything like this before and want to give it my best shot.

The main issue with appeals is that it isn't enough for the appeal to boil down to 'my child is a nice child who has these talents and the school they're currently in is a poorly managed nightmare'.
Usually there has to be a compelling reason why the particular school you're appealling has certain features that mean it's likely the only school that can suitably meet your child's needs.

Eg. The child has certain SEN needs/medical needs/mental health needs which require certain provision and the parents' preferred school has sensory spaces/a different curriculum/enhanced mainstream provision/a nurture model/is located conveniently for home and child's medical appointments. There would be medical and/or professional evidence to support the claims and recommendations.

You might be able to claim on travel grounds, depending on the nature of the journey, distance, number of connections etc if the school you've been allocated is further away, but if lots of children in your area go there then this is unlikely to be accepted.

If you've got evidence of excelling in a particular area (eg. Already published writer and not just the school publish ones, playing sport to county or higher level, music and drama at regional levels) and that matches the school's specialism then you might have a case. Eg. A child might be grade 7 or 8 on their instruments in Year 7, attend Saturday school at a regional conservatoire and their allocated school only offers music KS3 on rotation with drama and does not offer music at GCSE. They might be able to argue their child requires a school with a decent music curriculum.

I've oversimplified a bit, but liking creative writing and wanting extra curriculars is unlikely to be enough.

You need to look at moving OP.

House, not school.

Sorry, that was not clear. I mean moving house in order to move school. You’re renting, it is your best option.

How tied are you to the specific area? It can be hard in medium-sized towns with a limited number of schools, because moving within the town doesn’t help as only 1 school has places for late applicants wherever they live. You may need to move town completely.

You can appeal to all the other schools. Note that in areas where there is a large sixth form college or equivalent, it is normal for secondary schools to have no or tiny sixth forms, so this may not be a useful avenue to explore.

Could you consider further afield eg in the surrounding rural areas or towns, using buses or trains as transport? Can the council (and the neighbouring one) give you a list of all schools with places in Year 7 so you can see if there might be a preferable alternative with travelling?

Lots of kids in our town get buses to the next town, and some to a school over the county border. You don't have to limit yourself to schools in your catchment area. The problem, of course, is that if you don't choose your nearest school, then you have to pay for transport which can be costly as bus fares, even for school kids, aren't cheap.

Arrange a visit. You may find they have had lots of funding now that they are an academy so have improved.

Yes I think this is the key thing. Your DD is old enough to travel on public transport so look for schools a bus/train ride away that have space

Firstly, OP's daughter is now at the school and it doesn't sound great.

Secondly, becoming part of a MAT generally leads to a loss of money from the school's individual budget. Being inadequate doesn't mean that the school gets extra money.