Moving house: a good ofsted report or good location?

[assis104s]

hi,
Not sure if this has been covered before, so apologies if it has already.

In considering moving house for a good state school, do you think it's wiser to move to a good school catchment - one which ofsted reports to be 'outstanding' in somewhere such as Hackney, or to move somewhere posh, for example Hampstead where the local schools are 'good'?

Obviously we need to visit the different areas and schools but how much do you think school and external social environments are important to a child's upbringing?

Would be interested in your thoughts.

I have severe doubts about relying just on Ofsted. For example, our local primary school, which is brilliant, just had a bad (and IMHO undeserved) Ofsted. Whereas the local secondary school (whose ofsted we looked at when we moved here - at the time it was good) has just had an outstanding ofsted, yet I wouldn't send my kids there in a million years!

Personally, I think you can't do better than local knowledge.

good location Ofsted is fickle

It is sometimes the case that posh areas have less highly rated schools because so many of the dc go private. We moved to a less expensive location and this was difintely that case with our previous location.

Hi everybody - I'm a newbie.

I'd say visit the schools before making such a big decision, and don't go by OFSTED. My daughters' primary school has been consistently rated 'satisfactory' since they've been there, was finally upgraded to 'good' this year - and we parents all knew that we had chosen a really brilliant school for our kids. Frankly basing school choice on OFSTED alone is setting yourself up for disappointment, the schools that do well with them tend to be the ones that are good at 'selling themselves' and a lot of the ones that don't just quietly get on with the business of doing well by our children.

Hi
I sympathise with your dilemma. A lot will depend on what your children are like - are they likely to be hard-working, conscientious and ambitious? Then they may be fine at either. However, a lot also depends on who they make friends with as the peer group becomes very influential at high school. Would a 'better' area provide a better group of friends?

We moved house hoping that our sons would get a better education at a school deemed 'outstanding' by Ofsted. When our eldest went there we found it really poor and sent/are sending his younger brothers elsewhere. He is moving for Sixth Form.

The management of a school is very important. You need to visit schools and talk to the Head personally, not just on open evenings. Get an impression of the pupils' behaviour. If you have sons ask how boys GCSE results compare to girls at their school - some have a big difference and a lot of boys underachieve badly.

I wish you luck. A lot will depend on your child's personality and on chance - which friends they make and on the individual teachers they have.

Go by area. I do not have first hand experience of Hackney, but I suspect it is similar to the rest of London. Primary schools will be mixed, but fairly good. A fair proportion of children will be educated privately, but many will go to local school.

Secondary schools will be much worse. You will scratch your head and wonder why the difference between the primary and secondary schools. It will be a combination things. There may be one state school of choice which has a tiny catchment area. There may be more people going private for secondary education, and lots of people may move out of the area for secondary education. Brigher children may attend a distant grammar school (eg. in Essex).

On the other side of the fence, my DCs go to an outstanding school in one of the most deprived areas in the country. Infact as far as Ofsted outstanding goes, we are one of 'Twenty outstanding primary schools excelling against the odds.?

I didn't choose to live in this area, I needed somewhere to live, and this was the area that I was housed. The school is highly oversubscribed and there are children who live close who cant get a place in the school. It would annoy me to think that a person who could afford to, would buy a house close to the school just to get a place if they were not going to involve themselves in the wider community.

Choice is a beautiful thing, but its something of a privilege to many people. My children have a chance of making a better life for themselves than I can afford to give them because they have had the chance, by pure luck of a fantastic education.

To use a well worn phrase, you do not have any choice in terms of school places only the ability to express a preference for a school!

If you are thinking very carefully about this I would start at the top of the tree and decide which secondary school would be the right school for your children. Make sure that you look carefully at the admission arrangements for the school. Can you actually be sure that you will be near the top of the admission categories? It could well be that the secondary school has catchment primary schools, so that will then reduce the list of primary schools that are possibilities.

Ofsted reports are neither a dead-loss nor the holly grail when it comes to schools and I would not be too fussed by them. I would go and see what your shortlisted schools are like - (I suspect that the secondary school will frown about you going for a look round there, but the primary schools will not).

Your biggest problem is that a good school today could 2 years down the line be a failing school. Headteachers are important, so when you visit schools try and talk to the head. If at all possible find out how long they have been in post, do they look as they may be about to retire in the next 2 to 3 years etc.

Our local school was outstanding when we moved in but in special measures when I was looking for schools for ds. I would always choose location .

I just posted this on another thread but think it'd be useful for you lot too; a new website called
www.locrating.com
shows you all the schools' ofsted ratings on map and you can scroll around the area looking for the highest rated schools.

Please don't rely on Ofsted reports, what Ofsted considers 'Outstanding' may well not be what you value, (e.g. I don't think it's important or even good that students should be constantly bombarded with their levels and sub-levels, which IMHO distract from learning and even kill the enjoyment of learning, but Ofsted disagrees with me). There is no substitute for visiting schools and forming your own opinion.