It's certainly the week for teachers in the news!!

[letseatgrandma]

So then-what do we think of the latest one-satisfactory is to removed as an Ofsted rating. If schools remain in the new 'requires improvement' category, they will be put into special measures and teachers/senior managers (heads or not??!) dismissed. I presume they'll then be forced to become academies.

My friend's school was just graded as satisfactory-mainly because it has a large percentage of traveller pupils who do not attend on a regular basis despite all sorts of spurious attendance schemes. Of course all schools should be good or outstanding, but is dismissing teachers the way to go about this?!

Michael Gove is a twat.

My school is graded satisfactory overall, mainly due to our A*-C % passrate. Yes, compared to the rest of the county and the % they want us to hit it's dire, but from value added we're one of the top 250 schools in the country. However, ofsted don't care about that and it really is an unfair reflection of the make up of te school / pupil intake etc.

How will this help, mr Gove? You can give us 3 years all you like but unless you change the catchment area some problems are perennial problems and won't change. Maybe a bit of recognition that education is not just about results and some credit fir what we do do, eh?!

(rant over)

"Needs Improvement" is going to be seen as a failure and that appears to be what OFSTED intend.

We now have 3 fail grades and 2 pass grades which, I feel, gives entirely the wrong message. It's setting schools up to fail. How long before a Good grade is also regarded as "coasting"?

If schools need to improve, they should be graded Inadequate. There are two levels of this grade after all.

Simply playing with words will not improve standards.

I can see both sides of this one.

My DD goes to a school which at the last inspection was rated 'satisfactory'. Again largely due to the catchment area and an influx of traveler's.

So i do understand that for many school's they are fighting each day just to keep control of classrooms and attendance. For them improving above 'satisfactory' is perhaps a luxury they cannot afford.

However, on the other hand that shouldn't stop us from trying. One of the best things our new head did was to focus on as he puts it 'to be outstanding in everything we do'. So his aim as far as the school goes is to be outstanding.

A laudable aim and if I'm honest whilst I truly hope he will succeed, I have my doubts. But so far he's improved behaviour and standards massively. Parents from around the area now are trying to get their child a place at the school.

I guess it depends on attitude. It seems to me that many people are happy with the idea of being 'satisfactory'. Personally I'm not. Satisfactory in my eyes isn't good enough. I want to be better than that. I want my kids to have better than that.

I guess this translates in what I also expect in grades too. I had a conversation with a friend the other week who said she'd be really pleased if her kids came home with C's at GCSE's. Not me. I would be disappointed if mine got anything less than an A.

Can't stand Gove or his back of a fag box policy development programme but my children's school has been sitting at satisfactory for the last couple of inspections. After the last one the head teacher sent out a letter saying how they were pleased with their judgement of satisfactory as they had been expecting to fail. I much prefer the neighbouring school's response to their judgement of "good" - the head teacher sent out a letter expressing disappointment because their aim was to be outstanding as that is what the children deserve and then went on to outline her plans for improving the school further.

Don't get me wrong - aiming to be outstanding is what every school and every teacher wants. The thing is that how you measure what classes as outstanding achievement is no more a one size fits all for schools than there's a one size fits all for pupils.

A satisfactory grade means that the school is meeting the requirements set out by the Government.

If you're then going to say "That's not good enough - you have to exceed the requirements." then what's the point of having those requirements in the first place?
OFSTED have told us and time and again that we should constantly look for ways to improve regardless of our grading. A "requires improvement" grade is therefore meaningless.

niceguy2 maybe your friend has a good grasp of her child's ability and a C is fine.

If your child is capable of an A and gets it, then good, too. You don't say if this is the case.

And maybe your friends child is estimated a D, in which case their C is outstanding. Even Though the raw grade of it says it's not. Which is the point Mr Gove doesn't get...

Echt, I know her child. He's my son's best friend. I know him and his sister very well. There's absolutely no reason why they couldn't given the right support achieve top grades. But that's not what I'm trying to say.

What I'm trying to say is why aim for being 'fine'? Why settle for 'satisfactory'? Aim high. Is that really all we expect from our kids? To do OK? Do we not want them to soar? Do we not want them to get good jobs and have a nice comfortable life?

Like the post from cucumber above. If all other things remain equal, which school would I prefer my child to go to? One where the head is pleased at getting a satisfactory because he thought he'd failed. Or the one who is aiming to be outstanding?

The irony is that I sound like I push my kids like some education obsessed tiger mum (well dad). But I don't. I do have high expectations. If that makes me wrong then I don't want to be right.

Ah, more information now. What sort of "support" are you suggesting for these children? Have you shared this with the friend? Is the support form the school or the parent?

You say "we" and "our" when it comes to aspirations, yet, implicitly you criticise her lack of aspiration.

And anyway, what does all this have to do with schools?

It's hard to comment on the statements made by the respective head you refer to; was each in charge since the last OFSTED? Had one come in to help save a failing school? Not enough info there to make a judgement.