So what if my school is rated satisfactory by OFSTED

[Somarefuser]

Seriously, why should I care?
I have worked there for 5 years and the staff have been nagged and harassed at every meeting and INSETs. Whatever we do is never enough and the good is rarely noticed let alone praised. Most of us scuttle along trying to avoid the predators.
The school is rated good with outstanding features, as am I as a teacher, the children are happy and make good progress, there is a thriving PTA etc etc. The classroom level staff get on well with each other and support each other.
But I'm weary of being this battered by SLT every week. We are due an OFSTED in the Autumn term, and the pressure is being cranked up further.
I'm finding it hard to care about it. Why don't I just plod along in survival mode and why should I care if we are rated satisfactory for some tiny new detail of the 5,000 new details since last time is forgotten? There is a limit to how much I can take and I think I've reached it. I am no longer a company woman or even buying into the establishment jargon and ethos. So, what are the consequences to me of my school being satisfactory, and how can it be any worse than now?

I don't really know what the consequences are for the school - or if there are any.

As a parent, I couldn't care less! Ofsted rates our school as good with outstanding features. I think it's bloody marvellous, and a lot better than the so-called outstanding school down the road.

DS1's school has just been placed in special measures. I'm keeping an open mind for now because I don't know exactly why. I work in education myself and don't necessarily blame the frontline staff for what's happened.

Aren't they removing the 'satisfactory' rating to a needs improvement or something?

I'd move my DC if their school was only satisfactory

You should care if you are rated satisfactory because it may mean that there are things you personally can do to improve your teaching and the children's school experience.

your attitude definatly sounds like it needs improvement.

Well you don't sound outstanding, you sound pissed off. Which is exactly how I imagine staff at bad schools feel. Not that it's necessarily your fault, being badly managed sapps the strength out of you.

If you are downgraded then parents who care about their kid's education will do what they can to avoid your school, if there's a better one around.

I wouldn't care, DS was at a satifactory nursery which was amazing, all the staff were fantastic, such a wonderful place. We moved and he went to an outstanding one. It was okay, it was.. meh! it was "just" childcare, it didn't add anything to his life like the other one.

I wonder at how obsessed with box ticking outstanding ones are TBH

"You should care if you are rated satisfactory because it may mean that there are things you personally can do to improve your teaching and the children's school experience."

Or it may mean that Ofsted have moved the goalposts yet again and there is nothing at all wrong with your teaching. I hear you OP and I don't know how teachers stand the system.

(Have children at a satisfactory school which is, blatantly obviously, doing an outstandingly good job, but can't tick a couple of boxes where the odds are stacked against them).

I think teachers are some of the worse motivators and communicators (ironically!!!). I can imagine how the SLT are getting on your nerves. We have one such in our school. I am not a teacher, but I 'get' her vibe and it would annoy me if I were a teacher! I'm not sure how it works in teaching, but I think it's always acceptable to say, "Hey, I am not feeling motivated here. I want to be, but I just feel deflated." If you are, you can bet others are too. It's probably the fastest way to a 'satisfactory' rating there is.

I have taught in a 'satisfactory' school and I have taught in an 'outstanding' school. If I had kids(and if the schools were near each other) I would definitely send them to the satisfactory school. It was lovely in every way that mattered. The outstanding one got that label because the head jumped on every bandwagon going, got all the different 'awards' (healthy eating etc), and knew how to talk about her school to inspectors. But the behaviour was pretty bad and the academic standards weren't all that great.

I think the overall rating includes things like admin, punctuality and attendance. The OFSTED measure has been criticized, I would place no more importance on OFSTED than I would looking round a school and seeing the children, and then the teachers, and lastly the environment.

My dd1s primary school was in special measures, she left primary school with a reading age of 14.

Good parents don't blame the school. I think the pressure on staff at schools that are rated badly is so demoralising. I can get my head round the idea of happy teachers:happy staff.

I'd move my DC if their school was only satisfactory

So would I. But I would make that judgement for myself, rather than relying on ofsted to do it for me.

I think our school is fantastic because the head teacher is more interested in the children than in the ofsted inspectors. There is definitely too much box-ticking going on at the school up the road.

Well the inner city school I work at has recently been graded as satisfactory due to 'safeguarding' not all bags are under the chairs! However we get 69% A*-C including English and Maths, the closest two schools, both good with outstanding features, get 34% and 41%. I know where I would send my children.

The school down the road from me is only rated 'satisfactory', but they got good or outstanding for all the things that really matter to me, like children feeling safe, welcome and cared for. There is virtually no bullying at this school and local parents rave about the way that staff treat every child as an individual.

Our school is similar, greenbananas. And those things really matter.

The DDs primary got downgraded to satisfactory. It hasn't changed at all. The OFSTED rules have.
Our lovely HT is not impressed, his lovely reception teacher threatens to leave every time OFSTED descend. She's brilliant with the children, but finds bureaucracy really stressful.
DD2 is being given lots of SATs revision DD1 didn't get and I suspect OFSTED/parental pressure is behind this too.

Inspections and the national curriculum are necessary. DH and I both went to lovely, but academically useless primaries, that had never heard the word lesson plan. It has however gone to far.

So the consequences are minor then, a few children will move, but our school gets a lot of transient pupils anyway. Do the kids care more about whether you know their strengths and weaknesses and help them as individuals, or are they more bothered about reaching targets, measurable outcomes and how many booster classes they will need to do in their lunch hours to get them to a level 4?
I just get sick of the constant kicking from those motivated by the way that the school looks to the outside world, and important adults rather than the happiness and wellbeing of the kids in the school. Yes, we do every initiative going, healthy lunchboxes to vanity publishing of poetry.
When APP first came out, the head decreed that we should do it for every child in the class, not just the sample of 5 or 6. Why?

Satisfactory no longer means satisfactory.

I work in a school that has been in Special Measures, and is now 'satisfactory' (although I no longer know what that means). If my Department is judged on the progress that the students make, we are in the top 25% of schools, (including private/selective schools) even though because of our high mobility, many of our student results don't count in the figures.

The goal posts have changed considerably.

They aren't goalposts. It's a rainbow, and SLT are constantly telling us that if we work harder, longer, faster, smarter, and better with all the latest jargon and additional extras, then we will get there. The promised pot of gold where we will be able to stop and marvel for a while.
But it's an optical illusion.
I can no longer buy into the company brand, I feel completely detached from the grand scenario. It's a job with no cash bonus, no pay rise and no thanks if we do achieve Outstanding in the Autumn. It will just be onto the next set of demands.

"I'd move my DC if their school was only satisfactory"

Well that would mean you don't understand the system!

OP, I'm not a teacher, but can relate to what you're saying. My dd's teachers have all been brilliant - incredibly dedicated and hardworking. I don't see how they could do more than they do. And I wouldn't want the headteacher to push them like that. I want dd's teachers to be happy and enthusiastic about their work.

Rumour had it that our HT is very supportive and well-liked by the staff. I'm sure that this has a positive knock-on effect for the kids.

Its shit sorry

My DS's school is rated outstanding. It Jeffing ISN'T. TBH, I'd be happier if there was a satisfactory school nearby that had space in my DS's year that TACKLED bullying instead of threatening the parents to get them to shut up so that they don't lose their precious outstanding load of bollocks rating.