Has anyone ever seen a worse Ofsted Report than this?

[dingdongmerrilyonpie]

here and I thought I lived in a nice area

Be honest - have any of you ever seen one this bad?

Its pretty damning. I've read a fair few as I work for a number of schools plus those I was looking at when dd started school. The leadership and management and achievement and standards stuff would really concern me - how long has the head been in post? They are obviously going into special measures.

How many dcs have you got at the school? What did you think of it before this?

One there already and one due to go 2010 and it is now in special measures.

How fucking embarassing that a school in a relatively affluent area got that for a report.

pretty awful
is the senior school any better?

the first school and the high school seem OK, well fine to average I suppose. I don't understand why the middle school is so awful, it's the same children after all.

I assume either the head will leave or is new in post and is in the process of putting in the changes?

Dingdong, if you have a child there, how come you did not know about this before?

if it's an affluent area, is the private sector is creaming off a substantial number of children, so the local schools end up with a skewed intake?

Report is really bad although I'm a bit at the inspectors damning them for having lessons that involve a lot of listening and writing. That sums up almost my entire school (and adult) career!

The report is saying that the children are underachieving and this is partly due to the fact that the assessment and tracking of achievement is not in place in school. They can't set targets or teach to strengths/ sort out weaknesses without that assessment. It doesn't matter what sort of cohort they have, they all deserve to make progress and reach potential.

I did know about it a bit, it's just that I was in denial. And have no choice about which school to use either.

Sounds like they (the senior management) are just resting on their laurels and not really trying! What is really concerning is that they have been told to improve in a previous inspection and don't seem to have taken on board any of the comments about how to improve...

dingdong it's not about the children as much as the staff, esp with these kind of problems.

It's a very poor report but the good thing is that it's likely the head will leave and something will (have to) be done - if a school is in SM it has 6-monthly inspections till it get sback on track.

I would be most concerned about the leadership failings and the lack of tracking of pupils' progress (if any).

There is some good stuff in there about recent appointments getting to grips with problems (but too recent to impact on this report).

I must admit that I'm pretty horrified and it occurs to me as it did to another poster here that there might be private schools locally. No excuse though!

I'd be particularly concerned about the behaviour and care grades and my knee-jerk reaction would be to get my child out of there PDQ. I take it that there were no such concerns when your elder child started the school?

Question is, do you intend to stick with it and support the school or are you going to move your child elsewhere and place your other child in another school too when the time comes?

A school local to where I used to live, in a very affluent small city, had similar problems. I refused to send my own children there despite the difficulties of the 12 mile round walk or bike ride to the nearest decent school I could get them into. I have no regrets though as despite being on Special Measures twice and subsequently closed, then re-opened having been merged with the nearby infants school, this particular junior school has not improved much.

Whatever you chose to do, good luck.

Sorry - by the time I'd typed that (this damn computer is so slow!) you had answered much of what I'd asked!

Is there really NO other option for you?

Yes - the school my husband used to teach at (he got all 1's but every other department got 5's-although not number graded in such a way back then - was a bit embarrassing in the staff room) which was closed down a few months after the inspection. This was around 10 years ago. (Was a boys secondary school)

i meant 4's forgot where the grading system went down to (it was very sad when the school closed but the falling roll was embarrassing they went from about 700 kids to 280 odd at the end) BTW in the large majority of cases it wasn't the classroom teachers who were at fault - sure some were a bit hopeless but thats true of every school- many were excellent - it was in general due to leadership and social expectations (it was in a deprived area)

It's in Special Measures - this HAS to be a good thing now. Hopefully it will be turned round within two years. Many teachers told me this about a local school which was in special measures at one time. It HAS been turned round - the new head came in - sacked several teachers, expelled several troublemaker pupils and bought in non-negotiable rules. That was three years ago when the school was well under-subscribed. This year they had 200 more applicants than they had places and their results have gone through the roof. All in 3 years.

It is great news that all this has been identified and recorded. A lot of schools manage to pull it together enough to cover up many of the cracks and get an average "could do better in a few areas" type report. It is a damning report and pretty near the bottom of the heap from a teaching standards. However, all that is easy to turn around with new staff or clear guidance and training for staff.
It is not an embarrassment that it is a well off area. Schools can fail in all areas including the most expensive and well equipped private school.
Schools can be turned around in a year. Particularly in primary school where the main issue is staff. Much easier to deal with quickly than if the main problems were crumbling buildings, pupil truancy and huge discipline issues, no parental back up etc etc. I bet your school can be turned round effectively and fast.

Message withdrawn

I'd not worry as such about the crap ofsted I'd be more concerned as to what the school was doing a year after being in special measures. Have they got a new head? New senior mnagement in place etc What were this years yr6 SATS like and if it's still dire a year on can you not move your DC's?

My dd's school was in special measures before she started. A new head was employed, they got funding for a computer suite, I went to view and really liked what I saw and especially liked the head. Its now 3 years on and the head has really turned the school around, the last ofsted was really good and I'm more than happy that I chose this school. So I would be more concerned about how they are going to rectify the situation.

But the inspection was over a year ago. It may be different now. Why has it suddenly concerned you?

Local junior school got a broadly equally bad inspection summary 4 or 5 years ago, they have improved hugely since, they now have better KS2 SAT results than most the local schools.

What struck me about the report OP linked to was
A) poor teaching, this is a worry, they should pull out stops for Ofsted
B) poor record keeping, which means lack of paper trail that some would say is excessive, anyway.

So, only point A) seemed somewhat alarming to me.

I chose to go and work in a school like this that had an equally damning report and had been put into special measures. The school was in an affluent area but, again, those that could sent their children to private school, the school got a bit of a reputation with parents so some found other state schools to send thir children to. We were missing an entire class and I was given 17 children that were year 3 to special needs year 5. Most of the children had some sort of educational difficulties be it personal circumstances or sen needs that weren't beind addressed. As a result the school was given a new head who was supported by 5 other heads assigned to the school. The targets set for the children were a little ridiculous bearing in mind most of them couldn't/wouldn't write and the whole school suffered with a total lack of self esteem so felt they couldn't try in case of failure.

Your school will have so many officials assigned to grab it by the boot straps and drag it into a much better state with or without the current staff. There will a rigorous timetable of action plans, targets and ofsted insepctions (we had ofsted inspecting us a week before our real ofsted insepction) Plus, I can imagine, a lot of staff changes but hopefully things will improve. It's really a case of whether you are happy to stick it out.

Can I also just add that just because some of the local parents chose to send their children to private school it should not mean that the local school should suffer in terms of academic expectation, achievement or teaching capability. My children were incredibly hard work when I first got them but I still had the same expectations as I had of my middle class beacon school class. A teacher had previously hit a child, the year 6 class had lined up the reception and nursery children and started throwing stones at them so the Head called the police as they wouldn't stop. We had equipment that was frequently stolen, aggressive parents all in an affluent, though rural, area.

It annoys me when people say, 'well the parents choose to send their children to private school..' as if it's an excuse for poor teaching. Intellect knows no social bounds it's what you do with it that counts.