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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To send my son to an inadequate school?

56 replies

dollyplumislotsoffun · 17/04/2015 19:15

We are soon moving house to a small new development of about 30 family sized homes. Straight opposite is the village primary school. The school is newly built replacing the old primary in the village. Ofsted deemed it inadequate in its recent inspection and subsequently now has a new headteacher and special measures. My son is due to start nursery there in September. Do I continue and hope they turn it around in the next year or two? I'd really like him to be at the local school with the children who live near by, but equally I'm a bit concerned about it being a bit crap...

OP posts:

ImNameyChangey · 18/04/2015 09:00

Send him and support them all you can....help with the PTA and arranging after school clubs. Parental involvement can really turn things around.

thecatfromjapan · 18/04/2015 09:22

Just my opinion but I would choose a school on the grounds of whether my child will make friends there. I'd visit and check the other kids out.
You sound as though you want this school so that your child will have local friends. That's why I would choose it, too. So you need to find out if local children actually go there.
I can think of MANY area where local people do not send their children to the local school.
If you are choosing a school, despite a poor Ofsted report, for local friends, you really, really need to check out that there will be local friends there!
Sounds obvious but ...

PoppyFleur · 18/04/2015 09:28

We are sending our DS to a school that has been on SM but is now good. We have an outstanding school in catchment and to be honest we only viewed the other school as our back up option. How wrong we were, the outstanding school visit was very orchestrated & quite cold.

The school that had recently been on special measures put children front & centre of the parents open day, we were shown around the school by yr6 pupils & we were so impressed at their confidence & passion for their school. The headmaster did an intro speech on the day and then said if you really want to know the truth about our school ask our pupils.

Send your child to the nursery & you will soon get a feel for the school beyond what an offsted report can tell you.

Jollyphonics · 18/04/2015 09:30

I'd definitely send your son there for nursery, then see how it's going when it's time to apply for reception places.

A school in a village near me was put in special measures and was actually facing closure. They got a new head who turned it around, and within 2 years it's good/outstanding and oversubscribed.

NewLeaflet · 18/04/2015 09:35

Visit the school and see if you like it. I sent my son to a school in special measures and it was fine. Different schools suit different children, the reasons for them being in special measures may or may not affect your child. You can find schools coming out of special measures are really focused on improvement and have a very positive ethos. Equally, schools can previously have been judged as outstanding and then get special measures on their next visit! (odd but true)

AmateurSeamstress · 18/04/2015 09:41

I agree with catfromjapan.

Sendhim to nursery there and reassess next year. And find out if the local kids actually go there. There's a tiny village school near us which was in special measures for years. It's in a v affluent, tiny village and most of the local children either go to private schools, or stateschools in the nearby town. The children who do go there mainly live in the nearby town, and get allocated this little village school after not getting into any of the oversubscribed, outstanding, bigger schools in town.

Also I'm not sure how big your village school is but having thought a tiny school would suit my DC when they were little, now they are tweens I'm really glad we went for a bigger one.

SuburbanRhonda · 18/04/2015 09:48

Not knowing who to contact about an allegation against a member of staff is a strange thing for a HT not to know. I'm a DCPO in a primary school and it's covered in the DCPO training, which all HTs should have taken, as they are also DCPOs. The information should also be in the staff handbook, which the HT should have signed off. Very odd.

GoblinLittleOwl · 18/04/2015 11:32

Send your child to Nursery and find out as much as you can to inform your own judgement as to whether or not the school is inadequate, before he is due to start Reception.
The Head , rated Outstanding, of the local Primary, did not know of the existence of a book of Statutory Guidance on School Management (can't remember exact title) which resulted in a wrongful procedure being taken against a member of staff, who could (and should have) insisted on the replacement of the entire Governing Body, and the disciplining of the Head, as a result of the Head's incompetence.
Have never trusted OFSTED judgements since.

Thymeout · 18/04/2015 12:46

Results-based Ofsted gradings at primary level are often hugely skewed by parents paying for coaching. There is one in our area where the vast majority of children are routinely coached to get into the super-selectives and grammars in a neighbouring borough. Not surprisingly it has vg sats results.

Original poster

dollyplumislotsoffun · 23/04/2015 09:47

Found out today they are becoming an academy. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

OP posts:

ReallyTired · 23/04/2015 10:02

The problem with a school going into special measures is the sheer amount of turmoil in staffing. In my daughter's school there is only one original teacher out of 15 after 18 months of being rated OFSTED inadequate. The pressure of improving results means that there is no christmas play and no clubs.

I expect that once your child starts nursery the school will have settled down considerably. Big changes will have had time to bed in. There will be an inspection 18 months after the failed inspection so you will know if the school is still inadequate by the time your child starts reception.

Quality of school has less impact than what happens in the home in the early years. A child with good parental support can do well in an SM school. Life is what you make of it.

SpinDoctorOfAethelred · 23/04/2015 10:10

My local school is "inadequate". When I read the ofsted report it was because the head apparently didn't know what to do if an allegation was made against a member if staff. That's it! The teaching etc was fine. Ridiculous.

I agree with OFSTED on this one. I'm dumbfounded the school didn't have a policy set in place. Truly inadequate.

tobysmum77 · 23/04/2015 11:14

Ok spindoctor I agree that is inadequate but to put all the staff abd children through the upset and pain of sm/ sw is totally disproportionate. Have you actually had direct experience of your dc's school going into sm?

minionmadness · 23/04/2015 12:51

The scrutiny means we teach consistently well, know exactly where our kids are and what they need to go next. There is a high expectation of achievement as we need to show great progress. I can honestly say where we are now is light years from this time last year. Our SATs level 4s are on target to have nearly doubled

Why weren't you all doing this before It's no wonder your school was put in special measures really when you have just admitted you weren't carrying out your job to the best of your abilities!

This actually reads that your school couldn't be arsed to do what it was supposed to be doing.

ReallyTired · 23/04/2015 13:36

Often SM have fundermental failings in their management rather than individual teachers. The classroom teacher needs well structured support to make sure that every child makes good progress. For example a good school may need a full time qualified SENCO who can work with a particular child. There needs to be tracking systems to ensure that lack of progress is picked up quickly and there is intervention if required. In my daughter's school the old head failed to spend enough money on professional development.

minionmadness I imagine that there were bigger problem in QueenofLouisiana school that one member of staff could sort out. Such endemic problems can only be sorted by a change of leadership.

SpinDoctorOfAethelred · 23/04/2015 14:13

tobysmum Have you got direct experience of the upset and pain caused to staff and pupils when a serious safeguarding concern, such as an allegation of sexual abuse against a staff member, is mishandled?

This isn't a discrepancy of 5p in a cash float!

ReallyTired · 23/04/2015 14:26

I feel that safeguarding concerns is a very good reason for all the pain and upset of sm. Its a stronger reason than poor academic attainment. To me its pretty fundermental that our children are kept safe at school.

Cantdecideondinner · 23/04/2015 15:24

Our old school has gone from good inadequate and quite frankly that's because the teaching is rubbish and children do not make adequate progress. The SAT's results are excellent but that's because almost every child has external tuition. There's no way I would touch a school that requires improvement in either teaching or behaviour.

tobysmum77 · 23/04/2015 17:35

I think that the safeguarding concerns should be sorted and the head (ie the person at fault) disciplined. Instead everyone gets punished, its crazy.

tobysmum77 · 23/04/2015 17:36

SM should be about problems ingrained that have not been sorted over a period of time. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasnt been through sm.

ReallyTired · 23/04/2015 19:50

Toby,
Surely safeguarding is as about as fundermental as you can get. If the head deserves to be disciplined then leadership and the governors are inadequate. A massive safeguarding failure is not the responsibility of one person. It is only right that such a school is put into special measures.

Summerisle1 · 23/04/2015 20:13

I'd send your dc to nursery there and then give things further consideration when applying for reception places. The school may be fine in reality and you'll get a feel for this during the time your dc is in nursery there.

However, I've got very mixed feelings about inadequate schools right now because dgd1 has just been given a reception place at the one school in town that is failing. On the positive side, Early Years Provision is good. I also want to believe that the school can be turned around and neither do I place all my faith in OFSTED reports.

On the negative side, this school has had a poor reputation since way back - since my own dcs were at primary school in fact. Nothing ever seems to improve it and the school community mainly consists of children whose parents aren't tremendously concerned about which school their children attend and children whose parents didn't choose to send them there! So after 30 years of poor performance I'm left wondering if there are some schools that really can't be improved.

LapsedTwentysomething · 23/04/2015 21:34

Re the academy status, I would suspect that the Ofsted outcome was political.

doobeedee · 23/04/2015 21:52

Ofsted is hardly even about the teaching anymore. It's about looking at the massive paper trail they require teachers to do instead of getting on with planning lessons! That and over inflated levels and grades.

tobysmum77 · 24/04/2015 12:07

I disagree really tired, it depends on how easy it is to sort out and if it is a one off or amongst a whole catalogue of failings. Sm is used far too easily these days when there are better ways of dealing with things.

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