Outstanding school not oversubscribed but 2 neighbouring good schools are. WHY?

[Idonthaveenoughtime]

I am perplexed. I'm looking at primary schools. There is an outstanding school and two good schools in my town. Both of the good schools are oversubscribed, one school is slap bang in the centre of the better off part of the (small) town and has a middle class intake (but odd sats results, 17% achieeing only a level 3 and 63% achieving a level 5, what happened to the average students??). The other one has a more mixed intake and not so good results, but parents like it. But the outstanding school is not oversubscribed at all! It borders onto a council estate but only a tiny proportion have free school meals as many send their children to the good school down the road.
The outstanding school seems to have somewhat average Key stage 1 results (which could be more or less honest) but is at least outstanding. Ofsted report says parents love the school.
What am I missing? Why are so many parents avoiding this school when outstanding schools are usually fought over like gold dust? Are they all wondering the same as me? Or am I missing something?

i wonder how long the "outstanding" school has been graded as such?

round here, school gate lore would have you believe that the best option for secondary school is the RC Comprehensive, mainly because it was the best school 10-15 years ago.

No-one seems to have noticed that one of the other local comps has been quietly improving, and is now graded "outstanding", with GCSE results on par with the RC school.

Are those 2 schools handier for commuting, perhaps?

Or do they have better breakfast clubs or after school provision? Or are they feeder schools into better secondaries?

because ofsted ratings really are bollocks, local reputation & word of mouth are much more reliable.

because ofsted results are not the only thing important when choosing a school!!

i went on gut instinct with my kids school, and I'm very glad I did, it would have made no difference to me what the Ofsted report said about them

Or perhaps parents have gone to visit it, and they don't like the feel of it.

Ofsted is definately NOT the be all and end all of how good a school is, you need to read between the lines...

Visit the schools and find out for yourself!

Also it depend what you are looking for for your child, it hard to quantify that children leave a school as happy, well rounded confident people.

But SATS results are easier to add up, all that really shows is that the school has coached the pupils well through the SATS.

I also know of a school that sent a selection of lively children on a field trip on one of the inspection days!

OFSTED reports can be manipulated. Plus you could go and look around an outstanding school and just not feel right about it, and look around a good school and feel that it was perfect for your DC.

Could be various reasons:

Ofsted report could be out of date

parents' perceptions could be out of date

good schools could have something else that is less easy to quantify

dc's school has a reputation for outstanding pastoral care- the downside of that is that they attract parents like us with dc whose medical or emotional problems may pull attendance figures or results down

We are not doing their statistics any good, but their support means our dc can cope as they could never have done elsewhere.

My friend was delighted to get her son into a school which was rated outstanding. After less than a term, she removed him from the reception class. She and I are both teachers. He was miserable there to the extent that he started chewing his cuffs, something he had never done before and has not done since he was moved. The school appeared to get their SATS results and other results by working the children to a degree which she felt was unsuitable for a four year old and the head was hung up on tiny things, such as, did a child have an approved school bag, rather than how the children felt about school.
Could it be that something similar is happening and that the jungle drums have spread the word? My son's school is not rated outstanding but he loves it, the staff are great, he is coming on in leaps and bounds. I can go into his room with him every day in the morning if I want whereas the other school made parents leave even small kids at the door. My friend's son loves his new non outstanding school, too.

... because naice middle class parents don't like sending their genius children to schools in "rough" areas with "rough" children, and only "average" SATs results?
Even if Ofsted think the school is outstanding?

(know very many people who avoid a similar school round here for what is basically that reason)

My guess, just from reading the thread title? Shit with DC's with SN's or ignores a bullying problem. IME, those are the only reasons why an 'Outstanding' school is undersubscribed.

The HT gives the impression he/she doesn't care whether you come to the school or not.

This is exactly the impression the HT at one of our secondaries gives, it's an instant turn off.

Interesting, Couthy -- that's why we pulled one of ours out of the local outstanding school , which I note is currently undersubscribed for the first time in ages.

Some outstanding schools have an attitude of 'that's what we do, if you don't like it then tough'.

But this one may be great. Go and see it and if you like it then you know you have a good chance of getting in.

Had 4 DC's, 4 Primaries, one Secondary, looked around 20+ schools. Just my experience!!

Sometimes you get strange rumours go round as well.

When dd1 was starting the runmour round was that her primary was better for boys and the nearest other was best for girls. So they ended up with 2:1 boys at her school and roughly the other way at the other school.

There was nothing to actually sustantiate that rumour, and I've yet to meet anyone who was at one of the schools who agreed with that. But it made a huge difference for dd1's year, next year it did too, then after that the rumour died away and didn't have that sort of ration again.

Also if the outstanding grade is only this year then it may not have come down yet. Dd1's school tripled the applicants on first choice alone when they went up from good to outstanding.

As with any standard of school, the best thing to do is look at it and make your choice on what you see and your child, whatever the grade/reputation it may be the right school or wrong school for your child and that is what matters.

I sit as an appeals panellist, have done for 7 years. By far the majority of appeals are from parents who have failed to get into a school which is convenient for childcare / transport / comparable with older siblings at other schools.
Those who cite the educational needs of their child are a minority.
hard to believe when you are a regular reader of these pages on MN but I promise it's true.

I am similarly confused about the school at which my dd has been offered a place for September. It is outstanding Ofsted and offers 40 places a year, but only 39 offers were made and 8 of those were centrally placed by the local authority! I think it may be due to the fact it is only an infant school, so after 3 years of schooling you have to look for another school. Also, the Ofsted is from 2007/08 so maybe out of date? Though the few parents I've heard of whose children have gone there have been happy. It was only my second choice as we wanted our local school (good Ofsted rated) but it was massively oversubscribed so despite only living half a mile away we didn't get in. :-(

They MUST have had a more recent inspection than that - that was 6 years ago, they are done in a 3-year cycle.

Couthymow - sorry, there was an interim inspection in Jan 2011 but I don't find the interim inspections say much. Just say they're still happy with the outstanding rating, and on the school website it says "Outstanding Ofsted 2007/2008" though the inspection was May 2008, so towards end of that school year.

Thanks for the comment Tiggytape, I liked the school when I looked round, but don't feel that I am massively qualified to determine what is a good school or not :-( Totally confused about schools at the moment as dd has younger twin siblings who will need infant school application at the same time as dd needs junior school application with not much hope of getting them into same school. I want to be excited about dd starting school but instead can only feel worried about the situation.

Sorry for hijacking your post Idonothaveenoughtime.

Because there is some kind of prejudice against the pupils at the o/s school?
There are millions of people out there who are inspired by what they read in the DM.