school inspections/offsted/HMI reports Adelaide

[TALLULAHBELLE]

OK so following on from a thread where I asked about Naplan results & clutching at straws a bit as I have to make a decision on a primary school for DD now :
Does anyone know if SA schools are inspected in similar way to UK schools & if so are the reports published & what are they called? All I can find online are annual reports made by the schools themselves and containing the info they choose so not really comparable. And googling inspections just got me building inspections.
Thanks.

Have you looked at the myschool website? There is not an inspection system as far as I know.

here

Thanks - yes I have spent rather a lot of time on that site I find it confusing though - don't really know what the numbers mean and how accurate a picture they present iyswim. Was hoping for some sort of external report but guess not.

Keep clear of the myschool website. It is crap, imo. There is SO much more to a school than the results of 6 tests, over 3 days, once a year, that incidentally, most teachers hate/are weary of/really wish they didn't have to do (and I say that as someone on the Gov council of my daughter's school)

I'm not sure about how/if schools are inspected, but you could try calling DECs. They may know what the lie of the land is regarding inspections etc.

Where in SA are you? Can you not ask friends/family/playgroups/childcare for recommendations?

There are no such reports in Victoria so I doubt there are in SA. There isn't a National Curriculum never mind OFSTED.

Where I live most people just go to the local school. One of my friends is not at her local school as she wanted one on her route to work...

Before we moved, my dh went to look at schools and I looked at their websites as I was still in the UK. I am not thrilled with our school but it's OK.

One ofvthe things I didn't consider when we were looking was size. My dd1 is in grade three and there are seven grade three classes. She is a very small fish is a very big pond. I think my dh was swept away by the facilities that the school has. I was working in a primary school last week that had a kitchen, tv studio for blogging and the most amazing library I have ever seen but when we had library we were only in there for 15 minutes.

savoy, our school in introducing the national curriculum soon, so it is on it's way!

Is there a particular suburb or part of Adelaide you are thinking of looking at? There is a real range of demographics and the state schools often reflect this.

Victoria is having its own take on the national curriculum so it won't be national.

Thanks for the replies. Basically I was disturbed when I looked at the Naplan results for the school DD is enrolled in. She starts next term. They were very poor - below the average for everything for all year groups. Most schools in the area ( I am in Mile End so West Torrens council) appeared to have poor results but this school was the worst of the lot. I have spoken to parents there & everyone is happy enough & DD's friends from kindy will be going there.
I looked at a couple of the local Catholic schools - the one I liked had only marginally better results & I am uncomfortable with the religious stuff but I think we will go there & hope for the best. I am just so confused. I don't want to put too much faith in Naplan results - I get what you are saying Different but don't have anything else to go on.
The schools I'm looking at are around 300 pupils Savoy so not so big. Outdoor facilities are miles better than UK ('crap' school has it's own pool for instance) but the classrooms all seem to be dull & poky and lots of portacabins.

Naplan is very flawed and so is the myschool website. I think the best bet is the word of other parents.Try to get a school with aircon classrooms as kids get very wiped out in the heat