What would you do if your catchment primary school has a bad ofsted rating

[Mummy20160]

Hi all, I'm starting to think about primary schools for my daughter and found that our catchment school has had a poor ofsted rating of 3 and requires improvement. I have read the report thoroughly & it says things like "Pupils do not make good progress in reading/writing & maths' & 'the teaching is inconsistent'. Also says the more able students are not being stretched enough. I realise they will now be under pressure to improve but would you risk it if it was your child? I'm going to visit it next week and ask them how they at planning on improving in the future. The other schools in the area are oversubscribed. I'm willing to move if we have to, would be nice to hear if other people would consider moving if this happened to them thanks

I think that going for a visit is the right thing to do, might be v useful to chat to parents with children currently at the school and gauge opinion. You are quite right that the chances are that they will be well on the way to improving. If after this your not feeling good about the school I would definitely consider moving.

I wouldn't automatically let if put me off, I would visit and speak to staff (and speak to parents of current pupils is possible)

Ofsted ratings only reflect what was going on at the point when the inspection was made, if that was a while ago then thinks could easily have changed for better or worse.

Be wary of Ofsted ratings. Quite often the Outstanding school's ratings are many years out of date anyway. Our local Outstanding Primary and Secondary schools Ofsted was 8 and 9 years ago!!
Go and have a look for yourself x

Oops! Didn't mean to end with a x!

My catchment primary school is rated outstanding from 9 years ago. But I got a disinterested vibe when I visited. I chose a 'good' school with a very upbeat and enthusiastic staff with great peer/buddy support systems. Also positive reviews from parents whose kids attend their.
Worth a look around the schools.

Thank you everyone, another thing I wondered was how you actually get in touch with the parents of children that go to that school? I am not from the area originally so don't know anyone with a child that goes there, thanks

I would disagree about Ofsted visits because this one is RI. As a result there will be a follow up visit. Around 18-24 months on from the initial visit.

The school might be willing to show you an improvement plan so you can see what they are attempting to do. However it won’t be a quick fix. They will not share their staff training and progress data with you, but you can look at all the data on the government’s web site. This compares the school with others so you can see free school meals, pupil premium and other information such as progress. You can also ascertain from the Ofsted inspection history if this school has had a sudden fall from grace or has never been rated as Good at any inspection. What is the profile? What is it’s inspection history?

If other schools are oversubscribed, this is telling me that parents are walking away from this one. Ask parents at nursery, or anywhere you come into contact with parents of school age children. Even mums in a coffee shop! Is there any event at the school open to the local community? Go along.

From what I have observed, RI isn’t necessarily a long term disaster if the leadership of the school is top notch. If the Head knows how to improve the school and sets the right tone, ethos, challenge and standards, it will improve. If it carries on in the same vein and doesn’t address the issues, then the future isn’t great. Visiting can often tell you that teachers are great, the school is buzzing and it’s on the up. Or not!

Thank you for your long reply Bubblesbuddy, that is very useful. This is the school I am talking about reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/122715.
They have has some satisfactory results in the past one one good. Says there was a new head in 2018 and the last report says that has helped but they are still not getting good enough results. I've asked at nursery there is one or two parents with children at that school so will make contact that way.

Honestly - my worry with that Ofsted is the findings on the leadership. If governors aren't challenging effectively and leaders are evaluating themselves generously, then improvement isn't going to be easy or fast. With good leadership I would give an RI school a good go, with bad leadership even an outstanding school will struggle.

Having worked in RI schools, and read the Ofsted report you posted, I would not hesitate about this school being suitable. It sounds like they have a strong leader, who is already putting things in place that will improve the school. Behaviour is good. SEN provision is good, as is EYFS. It will be a school that is working hard to improve outcomes. As others have already said, Outstanding schools may not, in fact, be that great as they won't have been inspected for many years in some cases.
Make an appointment with the Head or Deputy to discuss your concerns. Ask for a tour of the school to get a good feel. And remember, ALL schools require improvement of some sort or another!

Thank you both for taking the time to read the Ofsted! Great to get some opinions x

I sent my DD to a school that had just been put into Special Measures and was being academised. It's our local village school, walkable from home, so she would have friends in the neighbourhood and we'd have a stress-free school run.
We visited the school and chatted to staff and governors, got a nice encouraging feeling. TBH as she was our first, we really had little idea what we were looking for but felt that being in the local school had more pros than cons, especially at primary level!
Fast forward five years, the school is now Good despite troubles with the old MAT, both our kids are there, they love it and have thrived.
If there are significant positives to the school, and you get a good gut feeling, then I wouldn't take an Ofsted Report as the be all and end all.

I would be wary of the school at the moment.

The head, senior leaders and governors have their work cut out to raise standards there. Chances are that improvements will come. But this won't happen overnight, and may well be too late for your daughter.

If your daughter has a few years before starting school, then there is no harm in watching and waiting to see what happens.

But I would echo previous posters who say that it's best to visit a school as part of your research.

My children's school (of which I am now one of the governors) was Satisfactory before they started.
But the Ofsted report said that the school was working hard to improve, there was a positive, caring atmosphere whenever I visted, and the feedback from people in the community who knew the school and headteacher was positive.
Now it's Good, Oustanding is within reach; and I am glad my children are there.

Thank you for your responses. My daughter would be due to start in 2020, however because she was premature I'm going to apply for her to defer a year .and start the year after, hopefully in reception. However in some cases you have to apply as normal for when they would start based in their birthday (2020) so that may not buy me any extra time . Selling our house & moving will take a lot if time, so I do need to think about it now as I may only have until next January to decide.