Ofsted - was their report on your child's school a fair reflection

[chai18]

I've read mine and don't recognise the school.

Our OFSTED report that was done for Andrew's school is completely fair. Several other schools that I have had experience with through doing part of a PGCE also had OFSTED inspections and their reports have been fair too. In fact I have been amazed how acturate a picture OFSTED can get of a school in two days.

My children's primary school got a really bad one several years back that I, and most other parents, couldn't recognise the school from. The school appealed against it, I think, and had another OFSTED two years later which better reflected the school we knew.

our school's report was also completely fair and a very good representation of the school

mine was too glowing

outstanding in all areas and no mention of the concerns that parents had raised

batters, the deputy head at the time did a little searching on the lead examiner and found she had a disproportionately large number of utter slaggings to her name. I was at the parents' meeting prior to the first report; one or two parents with an axe to grind (and I suspect not even a fair point to make) were allowed to dominate the meeting, and the lead examiner was quite clearly hostile from the start - you could see it from the expression on her face.

If a school is put in special measures then there is something seriously wrong with the school and often drastic changes are required, like a new head teacher. I think a lot of head teachers would appeal if their school was put in special measures as they dont want to lose their job!

If a school gets a bad report it is important to realise that its the school that has failed rather than the children. If Ofsted wrote nice reports all the time then bad schools would not get sorted out.

The position of a school in a league table means nothing. A rough inner city school that gets 90% of its eleven year olds to level four in the main national curriculum subjects may well be doing outstanding well. A school in a rich area with similar results might have serious problems.

Quite rightly Ofsted also looks at factors like how the learners enjoy their education, the pastoral side of a school as well results. League tables do not measure these things.

frances5, I have no problem with OFSTED writing bad reports on schools that deserve it. Ours didn't, as was borne out by the later report.

A school a short distance away with real problems received an OK report at around the same time; ours just had a rogue lead examiner.

The new 2 day visit at our school didn't see even one complete lesson - just dipped in and out. We got'outstanding'for our special needs & pastoral care, but only satisfactory overall because the previous years' Sats were below target
The inspection was in February, & the children who were then working for their SATs got some of our best results ever, because all the issues fronm the previous year had been addressed - which the inpectors accepted - but they still weren't allowed to give highr than satisfactory.

Schools are moving more towards self evaluation. Head teachers are expected to take on the role of quality control rather than a teacher's career being completely and utterly finished by an Ofsted inspector observing his/ her lesson for ten minutes.

The new inspections mainly look at the management of the school rather than individual teachers. In the past a school was inspected every 6 years. There was loads of notice and the inspections were very artifical. Now inspections happen every 2 to 3 years, there is only days notice. Schools do not have time to prepare and the inspectors see what the school is really like. Also bad schools are sorted more quickly.

What experience of the school up the road have you had? Are the problems that the school up the road got avoidable. (Ie problem like most children dont speak English when they start school, or the school is in a deprived area) It is not fair to comdem a school which you have had no direct experience of.

My guess is that the school has improved because it has had intervention. Maybe the school needed a kick up the back side. The intevention has improved the education of the children and the school has climbed the league tables because it. A school can change a lot in two years.

Also a school that is bottom of the league tables is not necessarily the worst school in town. In a large town one school has to be bottom. Its a bit like positions of children in a class.

Ours got a really good report which is also good considering we live in what you'd call an "impoverished neighbourhood".

Both my kids love their school and happy to go which in turn makes me very happy.

My experience of the school up the road was that children were leaving in large numbers over endemic bullying problems. Teachers at the school were moving their own children out. The catchment areas of the two schools were overlapping and very similar. The schools were the same size.

And I didn't see evidence of major intervention at my own children's school over the two years.

I'm not knocking the system in general, frances5, just commenting that miscarriages of justice do occasionally happen.

batters, S (and of course I don't mean SW ).

A miscarriage of justice is when children get a sub standard education. If a school gets a bad Ofsted support then support is put in place to try and improve the school.

If the school that your children attends was put in special measures or given notice to improve then they would have to make changes. Its possible that the problems with the school were to do with managing staff rather than the teaching being poor. For example if staff were not being supported or having professional development then that would be a serious issue. Prehaps your children school are very disorganised with dealing with assessment tracking or something else that does not directly impact on learning. It is important to remember that Ofsted is not there to assess the children, but the school.

To be honest I think you have to work in a school or at least observe it to judge a schools quality. Even then many parents do not know of any other schools to judge their children's school against.

Often playground gossip about other schools is just gossip. You cant judge a school on the basis of hearsay. Ofsted inspectors are mostly trained teachers with a lot of experience and further training. Unless your are trained teacher in the appropiate key stage it is very hard to judge a school.