How accurate are ofsted ratings?

[Jesusgirl]

There's a school I really like, the kids are very well behaved and it looks like a nice school. But the last OFSTED rating was satisfactory.

I'm just wondering if the kids were just 'coached' to act really happy on the open day or the OFTED inspection was just done on a bad day.

I'd really like my dd to go there but I'm quite concerned about the OFSTED thing.

Thanks in advance for your response.

I have fooled OFSTED many, many times.

Go with your instinct.

@shagobite the Ofsted report my DD2's school got today contained several factual inaccuracies, to do with the school's published SATs results and national averages (all easily verifiable had the person writing the report bothered to do so) and several grammatical, spelling and labeling errors. I cannot offer an opinion on Ofsted as a whole, but the inspector who wrote that report clearly placed very little value on accuracy of data.

I cannot resist coming in on this discussion of OFSTED. I agree with all the posters that say to go with your feeling and take the OFSTED ratings with a pinch of salt.

I visited a small school based on word-of-mouth recommendation, and was very impressed with the head, the teachers and the scores of happy children that I saw. I was a bit surprised to get home and find that a recent OFSTED report had rated several aspects of the school as "unsatisfactory". I really though that they had visited a different school!

The "unsatisfactory" elements were about some very precise details (eg. a lock missing on a broom cupboard, or something along those lines); and there was very little in the OFSTED report about overall atomosphere and ethos of the school, which were excellent. I had the impression that the OFSTED inspectors hadn't really noticed what was really going on at the school, but instead had come up with a list of little requirements that were probably the result of changed legislation that the school hadn't been aware of.

You probably need to read the OFSTED report very carefully and see what aspect that they object to matters to you and whether if would affect your child. If it is about specific details such as whether or not a complaints policy is posted on the website, I would ignore the report. You don't need a complaints policy to be publically available, you want to be reassured that - should you have a complaint or niggle or suggestion or request - you will be listened to and taken seriously, and that there will be a satisfactory outcome that doesn't even escalate to a full-blown complaint. That comes from being able to trust the head.

You could also seek opinions directly from other parents. Some of the things that impress me the most about the school in question are things that only an insider could know.

our school went good to satisfactory and to be honest it was deserved..... all the stuff parents talk about in the playground was being missed - i.e lack of focussed homework, lack of stretching of kids of "normal" ability let alone "bright" kids, too many changes of teacher in the week, lack of communication with parents... it is getting better, but if you read the ofsted for our school, it is all in there.....

I would not have chosen the school if it had read like that after the previous ofsted, but they had a change of HT which has brought problems....

Our school was pushing very hard for an Outstanding and came close to receiving it, but their pastoral support suffered and it was a very hard place to be in if for some reason you got in the way of this one over-riding aim. All Ofsted reports should carry the assurance that no children were damaged in this process

Dcs' current school is on the same Ofsted rating, but a very much better place to be in.