Name Change for School and Ofsted

[Korvalscat]

I know that if a school converts to become an academy, the new school is not usually inspected by Ofsted for about 3 years. What happens if a school changes its name? I don't mean just ABC High school to ABC Academy, I mean ABC Academy to Random Local Feature Academy with no links at all to former identity. Would Ofsted consider it a new school and the 3 years for inspection begin again or would it remain on ABC's inspection schedule?

I wondered about this because a local MAT with 4 schools has radically changed the names of all of them. 2 of the schools became Academies last year (with the usual High School to Academy name change), the 3rd was rated Inadequate late last year and the 4th, an Academy for 6+ years, was rated Good at it last inspection in 2015 but is due for re-inspection from next year and the last 2 years of published exam results have not been good.

I regularly drive past 2 of the schools and the new signs have been put up in the last couple of days and I was just curious as to what benefit the schools would get from changing the names so drastically? It must be costing the MAT a fortune as all 4 schools are changing to the same uniform and all pupils are entitled to a free Blazer and tie.

Sorry this post is longer than I intended.

In my area (SE London) the name change is a vanity project IMO to the name of the MAT founder and all the schools are MATNAME-LOCALITY and it is darn confusing and giving very little choice to most parents.

If Parents want a different ethos, as this particular MAT is a major force in the area and for some postcodes (not quite my corner of the borough) they have no choice. MAT comes in, rebrands and school uniform changes (as you say giving out changes for Free) and signs change and they then boot out the pupils are not going to better their league tables (FOI lends weight to this) and they prove to the league table powers that be they are worthy and they repeat the same pattern, get ooodles of money to do so, and go into another school. Oh dear the number of children home educated has increased - ooops. Side except of the system. It doesn’t seem to work for some MATs. Some it does. Feeling a tad cynical - yes I am!

No, it wouldn't automatically be considered a new school (and there's no blanket rule about Ofsted not inspecting new schools for three years either)

The main reason for changing the name is normally to give a "clean slate". Parents who will have negative associations with St Sink School are less likely to make the connection with Shiny Academy - ditto local employers

PettsWoodParadise This Mat sounds similar to those near your. All 4 will now have the same school day start and finish time and lesson length and a new zero-tolerance Values Driven Expectations behaviour system to establish and maintain a culture of excellence. The latter sounds as it will lead to a load of extra pupils in isolation or a PRU.

OleannasWimple Thank you for you explanation. That make sense, all four schools have poor reputations and have had them for several years - one in particular was known as where the 'no-hopers' went when I was at school over 30 years ago.

It depends on the school’s registration. Each school has a unique reference number (URN). You can find this on the ofsted website. So an academy converter gets a new number and the ofsted clock resets.

Hand over a school for rebranding, renaming and get rid of the kids that may bring down the school's league table place. Welcome to state education in the UK in 2018.

Dudley MAT by any chance?

But my DCs school was Outstanding converted to an Academy and still hasn't been Ofsteded. Totally new school for 6+ years and no hint of Ofsted. 2 new Heads too. But the exams results have stayed constant/improved.

My schools were inspected more in pre- Ofsted days.