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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To care about Ofsted?

11 replies

ZippyLimeBear · 09/09/2025 18:48

My son is in preschool and his school just got a ‘required improvement’ rating for quality of education and leadership. The early years provision was marked as good, he enjoys it and it’s our local school and by far easiest to get through.

i think we should send him to a school ranked ‘good’ in our local area when he starts reception next year. My husband thinks he should stay as he is happy.

Who is right?

OP posts:
mammabing · 09/09/2025 20:52

I worked at a school rated RI and as a staff we then worked our butts off to improve our rating. Meanwhile our sister school which was rated good coasted by on their previous rating and as soon as they got their inspection they moved down. Often RI schools have solid plans in place to improve them.
Whilst I get that it’s off putting it may be worth fully reading the report too. We were (rightly) given RI for trying to do too much and nothing being embedded. As soon as we realised the problem we were able to quickly fix it.

Zanatdy · 09/09/2025 20:56

I’d definitely try and get him a place in a school with a good or outstanding not requires improvement.

ellesbellesxxx · 09/09/2025 20:59

My children’s school was marked “ri” for quality of education. I was gutted for them as they are an amazing staff team and we have been really happy with the progress our children have made. The report however was really positive and recognised the progress the school have already made under new management so I am hopeful that when they return, the progress will be recognised and they will be upgraded.
It’s just a snapshot of the school, you may love it!

FunnyOrca · 09/09/2025 21:02

I worked at an “outstanding” school, which was always favoured by Ofsted. I would never send a child of mine there. It was conformity and results at the expense of the children’s personality and staff wellbeing.

Lesina · 09/09/2025 21:05

Stay where your very young child is happy. Anything else is madness.

TaborlinTheGreat · 09/09/2025 21:14

FunnyOrca · 09/09/2025 21:02

I worked at an “outstanding” school, which was always favoured by Ofsted. I would never send a child of mine there. It was conformity and results at the expense of the children’s personality and staff wellbeing.

Same here. Tbh even as an experienced teacher it's hard to really judge a school accurately by its Ofsted results, or to decide how else to judge it. I'd read the full report and look at what the supposed shortcomings of the school were judged to be, think about whether they tally with your experience of the school, and decide how important those shortcomings are if they are accurate.

Luxio · 09/09/2025 21:16

YABU. Ofsted gradings are probably the least important element in deciding which school your child should attend.

londongirl12 · 09/09/2025 21:23

Read the actual report, as they may have been marked down for something that isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

in my opinion, Ofsted are as useful as a chocolate teapot. Even though there were 30 parents that filled out the parent survey of my sons previous school saying how appalling the school are treating SEN kids, they still received an outstanding. Absolutely shameful.

Snowdroppel · 09/09/2025 21:23

I work in one of a pair of schools. The EXACT SAME THINGS (e.g. planning documents) were given different grades at the two schools by Ofsted a matter of weeks apart. It's not fit for purpose.

BeautifulTulips · 10/09/2025 03:21

Honestly, as a teacher who was worked in a range of schools, I would not take any notice of Ofsted. You are the best person to look at the school and know whether or not that is the best fit for your child. I appreciate this is a very recent report but you may find the other schools which are rated as outstanding have quite an old report and circumstances in schools change, plus despite all of their training ofsted inspectors are subjective to some extent and will focus on particular things which another inspector may not have such an obsession with!

vivainsomnia · 10/09/2025 09:16

When I moved to a new town, our local primary was rated outstanding and extremely population. As such, despite being a very large school, it was oversubscribed. My children were allocated a school rated ri. I was horrified but I was encouraged to go and visit it and I had a very good vibes. They got a new head who was amazing. In the meantime, the other school experienced some issues.

Three years down the line, all the children found themselves in two secondary schools and tea hers agreed that the children coming from my kids school were much more prepared for secondary schools in all aspects of study and behaviour and the difference was significant. The majority of those in top sets came from my kids primary.

It was a fantastic school and I end up being so grateful they didn't get a place in our local one (although logistically a bit of a nightmare).

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