Is your primary rated outstanding?

[Acatcalledmia]

If your primary is rated outstanding, do you feel it’s justified? Obviously it probably is outstanding from the inspection and criteria, but the term outstanding triggers an image of something more than a run of the mill school. Ours is fine, but I’m not blown away by it. Is it a bit like vanity sizing?

This is such a good tip! When my DD went to college, I started taking the train to work (which happened to be on the same stop as the "other" college). I was horrified at things that I overhead daily, particularly once, when two boys were talking about watching porn as if it's the most normal thing, in their loud voices. I don't know if it's what teenagers do these days but i was glad my DD was not in their class.

My 3 kids have been at a primary while it has gone from Good to Outstanding, a secondary that has briefly dipped from Good to RI and back again, and a 6th form that has just had an Outstanding Ofsted last year. The two Outstanding schools were clearly better than the Good school but we had pupils there at the time of the inspection.

We have two local schools who have old Outstandings and in both cases we know people with kids there who have had ongoing terrible experiences with bullying and the school has not dealt with it (whereas our Good secondary has been OK, if not perfect).

So a very recent Outstanding is meaningful, an old one isn't. And, as a PP said, children's experiences can vary at the same school. DD had a very different experience throughout school than her friend with mental health problems than meant her attendance went down. Thankfully she got the grades needed and is loving college.

My eldest children both went to an RI school because that’s all I could get them in when we moved house. My daughter has just left year 6 in an Outstanding primary school. In all honesty, I would struggle to find much difference between the two schools. Both were exceptional

Ofsted is just one of those things that is about who plays the game and talks the talk the best. Some of it is also based on data percentages, which tends to means smaller schools can struggle to get the highest rating. It's all a game and a fairly meaningless, unhelpful one at that.

My DS’s primary was ranked good when they started, was inspected and went to RI, then went up to outstanding when it was reinspected. All while they were there, so over the space of a few years.

I did not notice any difference at all in the way the school was run, the quality of teaching etc.

I would definitely take primary ofsted ratings with a large pinch of salt.

Ours was outstanding when we joined but I don't understand why, it had actually never had a proper inspection and had been open 10 years. It had one last year and was rated good. I'm happy with it and both kids like it there.

DC are in an outstanding primary. I think it mainly reflects the demographic of the area- middle class pushy parents who are tutoring their DC anyway, can raise a lot for the pta so pay for all the things ofsted like (forest school, extra curricular) the head teacher I think is awful but clearly very savvy at meeting criteria.

The very recent report from ofsted largely focused on children's behaviour and how they walked nicely around the school, no running etc. I thought it made it sound soulless tbh.

I've been a senior leader in schools from outstanding to special measures. I was at the outstanding school from 2011 to 2017 and it was rated outstanding in 2013. It was ten years before they had another inspection- different kids, headteacher, many of the teachers too (although some have worked there for decades). I'd only consider the rating relevant if it was recent.

When our primary was good, it was calm, kind and caring. My eldest thrived there.

When a new head bulldozed in and achieved outstanding, it became shouty, full of anxiety, obsessed with petty rules and targets and suddenly had a secret bullying issue that the head denied. My youngest got bullied, tbe head laughed at the suggestion that her outstanding school had bullies, and he was so miserable that we changed schools.

Ofsted ratings do not seem to reflect my impressions or experiences of my local schools. My DC attended our local comp and it was RI and undersubscribed when they started, it's good and over subscribed now without any material difference to my DC. I still like a lot of how they do things and they still have real gaps and poor provision on some things imo.

There's a local primary school close to us that are rated Outstanding and I have deliberately avoided them for my DC. It looks like they are so focussed on appearance and 'being the best' that they spend a lot of time and energy on self promotion, their social media is full of photos of what they're doing all the time etc etc. They insist on them having uniform everything including water bottles and bags (you pay), and they go on masses of trips (you pay). I think they are savvy from a business point of view, their intakes are huge, their staff very young and the additional costs to parents are very very high. It's basically branding and marketing and attracts parents who can pay, and who like to be part of the hype. Their plays are performed in a local theatre (you pay) and they do residential trips abroad (you pay).

I wanted my DC to have a primary experience that felt local, safe, imaginative, play based and age appropriate with lots of time outside and things like harvest festivals and Nativity etc. They have had a really happy time and thrived in a fairly ropey physical environment but with older, established staff who have instilled a love of reading, stories, nature and wildlife and they have mixed with a very mixed socially peer group including children staying at the local hotel who often move on quickly. They haven't had lots of trips or residentials or branded kit because the school don't feel they ask parents to pay for it. I think the most recent Ofsted was Good.

All the DC from these different primaries end up at a limited selection for secondaries and all feed in to one sixth form here. It is impossible to see any correlation at all between the children who attended the Ofsted Outstanding schools and their later attainment (academic or social/life skills). Indeed the schools that apparently outperform all the others locally for KS2 SATs don't seem to be over represented in even year 7 top sets etc, so it all seems a bit transient and not really about lasting impact for the DC.

I think the feel of a place and the staff or even the peer group attending can influence your time at school so much more than an Ofsted rating.

The primary we chose was good and we pit the outstanding school lower on the list as we visited and didn’t like it as much (the vibe felt off and was a bit more strict / uniform etc). We went with the more relaxed “good” lovely friendly staff who have been there for years! No uniform, teachers use first names - unlimited access to outdoors

this was right for us

if you look at the actual report it says everything is outstanding pretty much except overall it’s good because of few minor things that really I don’t care about

How do you get to see a school on a normal day?

Ring up and ask, especially if you have a particular reason eg around SEN provision, an anxious child, considering a change due to commuting distance to work etc rather than just wanting a look to see if the grass is greener. (That probably sounds harsh, but isn't meant in that way.) You could even say something just like "I'm not sure the current school is a good fit and wondered if we could have a look at your school, having heard goid things about it from a colleague." Most schools, especially primaries, are very keen to accommodate - although you may get the brush off if they are already full / nearly full.

Yes, outstanding primary and secondary. My DCs all did brilliantly academically and have all gone on to start fantastic careers (no uni, their choices).

Having worked in several schools over the past few years, my DCs’ school was by far my favourite place to work. Atmosphere was always positive and encouraging, children polite and well behaved, supporting each other, including more able pupils helping their non-verbal/autistic friends and offering support to younger pupils. Just a step above some of the other schools where children were running riot, no respect for teachers or other pupils.