DD school and horrific Ofsted report

[Specialmeasuresofgin]

This will completely out me so I am under a new name. Sorry it is long but I am desperate for advice.

We moved our child who is year nine to a different school last September. This followed a terrible time at her old school which included bullying, threats with a knife and a generally horrible time at her old school. DD has some learning needs which were also not being met and socially she was near enough always alone. She hated school and was beginning to refuse to go and was suffering from anxiety.

The only suitable other option with space was a UTC school. Socially she has thrived here, smaller environment, teachers know all the pupils and for the first time ever has proper consistent friends.

We have had issues with the teaching in Maths and I made a complaint about this as her maths teacher has been teaching at another place for the last six months consistently leaving them with supply teachers, her physics teacher has also been off months.
DD made a massive drop in learning in Maths (think B to a D)
The school did say they were dealing with it and that the teacher would be back properly by x date, he is back but has been missing several days again since. They arranged to work with dd to support her and did for a couple of weeks but this too seems to have veered off.

Apart from this dd is holding her own academically despite having sen. In certain lessons she has made amazing progress and some teaching in those areas seems very good.

I was really panicking that I had done the wrong thing but she is so happy so I decided to hold out on a decision.

Anyway Ofsted report came home tonight and it is VERY BAD.
They are now in special measures and every single area has received inadequate.

Failures in safe guarding, inadequate teaching, irretrievable damage to the now year 11s teaching, Top set year 11 covering primary level work, breakdown of relationship between senior staff and teachers,very weak teaching, high amount of parent complaints, racist and homophobic bullying.

Basically it is really bad.

I could cry. DD is so happy here but another UTC school linked this the same people has announced closure after none of them passed their GCSE exams.

If dd was year 11 in September I would possibly risk it but she will go into year 10. The school only officially takes at year 10 and a lot of the new starters for September are withdrawing their application meaning dropping numbers.

So we are faced with three scenarios.

1. The new team come in and kick it up the arse and it sorts it self out.
2. Numbers continue to drop and they close the school like they have with other UTC. Leaving dd possibly at the start of year 11 with no school.
3. The year 11 fail their GCSES, The school is closed like the other linked one was and dd is possibly left with no school for year 11.

AIBU to ask what the hell you would do?

Is a UTC school one that only goes from Y10-Y13? Why do they have just 30 Y9s tacked on to the bottom? It sounds like a very odd set up and one I wouldn't be overly keen on, especially if others are having problems.

But then happiness at secondary school isn't something you let go of lightly either.

Tough decision. I think I'd do what a PP suggested and apply for the Y10 intake elsewhere to keep your options open for now.

I think the 'special measures means more focus and resources' advice does generally ring true in most cases, however I think this being a UTC does add complication.

So many of them are already low on numbers and struggling and the closure rate is quite high, as someone mentioned upthread. They're in a vulnerable position even without being placed in SM.

I was wrong in my previous assumption. I think I know which one it is now. A nearby one also in a town beginning with B closed last August (announced last May?)

There seem to be two schools of thought here:

• get her out pdq as the school has had a bad OfSted
• leave her there as she is happy and the school is going to get support to improve.

I know which I would do - the second - because happiness trumps all as far as I am concerned.

I think it's more the risk of closure resulting from the bad Ofsted rather than the bad Ofsted per se. Risk of closure is likely higher in this case than with a 'normal' school.

They had reassured you about her Maths teaching but the teacher never properly returned. The OFSTED report only confirmed your suspicions. With these in mind, go to the meeting and ask them why you should trust them now when they don't seem to know what they are doing.

If it's the one I think it is the next nearest secondary is about to have their ofsted published any day and I've been told it's bad. if you are going to move you need to act quickly as I suspect there may be a mass exodus from that one as well.

I've found the report. Sorry, OP. I'd get her out.

There seem to be two schools of thought here:
- get her out pdq as the school has had a bad OfSted
- leave her there as she is happy and the school is going to get support to improve.

I know which I would do - the second - because happiness trumps all as far as I am concerned.

Normally, if this were any other type of school, I would agree with you. Not in this case, however. As PP have pointed out, UTCs are closing all over the country. Even Michael Gove, who introduced the scheme, has recently admitted that the experiment has failed. UTCs were a manifesto commitment in the 2015 GE but Tory education policy is changing under May and the focus is now on free schools and grammars.

I think you can safely anticipate that the UTC may well be closed down.

Just read full report. I've read some bad ofsteds in my time & my dh is acteacher but this one takes some beating. Get her out.

'EduCated

I think it's more the risk of closure resulting from the bad Ofsted rather than the bad Ofsted per se. Risk of closure is likely higher in this case than with a 'normal' school'

Yes this

Which one is it?

IMO I wouldn't leave this up to chance. GCSEs are the most important thing you'll do in secondary school, even if you leave her there there'll be no guarantee that things will improve and her GCSEs will suffer for it.

I mean, I went to a outstanding school and hated it, but at least I did okay in my exams. I'd be worried about being left in a failing school would demotivate your DD from working hard and doing well because I guess she would pick up on the fact that everything was going wrong around her and people would leave?

Oh i found it

Thanks all
I've since found out the now resigned director heads up another free school (on top of the other UTC) in and the Free school is also closing in July alongside the other UTC so I am mightily annoyed.

It's doubly upsetting as she is so happy and the senco/pastoral care has been amazing. They sorted laptops, passes and extra time immediately when she had been left without help. I've been told the maths help is happening.

Senco even got in touch after I had seen some not very nice comments online about sen.

They have brought a 'super head' and in and two very good academics people but I'm always going to be worried about it closing and child has already said some of the teachers have said they are leaving and looking for new jobs and kids saying the same and I've seen posts from prospective parents understandably saying they will withdraw.

Ofsted are back in Summer but possibly report won't go up before holidays.

I'm waiting for an Interview date for an alternative for daughter.
There is another one but even though it's not far the transport would be a bit of a nightmare.

Dd is incredibly upset
She desperately doesn't want to go back to a normal mainstream and I could swing for the person who fed us shit knowing the school was already in trouble last summer

Check out the DfE GCSE league tables website - provisional results for 2017 have just been posted. Below average progress, 35% got a good pass in maths& English, 13% persistent absence. Many UTC's have much worse figures.

There are 49 UTC's across the country as a whole - about 1.5% of all schools. 37 of these posted results in 2017 - 4 of which closed at the end of August. 30/37 of these feature in the Government's "below the floor standards" as failing schools. So about 10% of all failing schools are UTC's.

If I have guessed the UTC correctly then it WAS planning to turn into a school, starting at Year 7, so the more usual model, but that all seems to have been shelved after the OFSTED.

The majority of UTC's have poor OFSTED results: and when they have a good OFSTED result you can't actually find any data in some cases because the cohort is so small. Think Orwell's pier!

Think the government is shutting up shop on these - mad model - 8 have closed - many more have such low numbers they are not really financially viable

My kids school got a terrible offstead report last year. Non of the pupils taught in my kids years are likely to do well in maths due to inadequate teaching. It was in the paper.

I can say that they have made a huge effort to improve. Extra classes with new teachers. My dd who has never done well with maths in actually getting better at it and understanding it.

This could be a good thing as they should now make an effort to turn it around.