Moving catchment area for better school?

[Roo0996]

Me and my husband are currently undecided about whether to move to a new part of the city with better primary and secondary schools (ofsted outstanding) or stay where we are where the schools are still ofsted ‘good’ but the secondary school has a bit of a reputation with behaviour problems and doesn’t seem as good on the extracurricular opportunities.

Our kids haven’t started school yet at all..If we were to move id want to do it before they started primary to avoid disruption when they’ve already made friends etc...but we would be really stretching ourselves financially as the new area is also a lot more expensive for houses. The house we currently live in is big enough and doesn’t need any work we’ve just finished doing it up.so if we stayed here we’d be able to start paying chunks of mortgage off etc. If we move we’ll probably have to get a project to do up so lots of disruption and expense.

I’m asking for opinions really as I feel very conflicted..I went to a terrible school and still did well academically but I obviously want my kids to have the best opportunities available! Just not sure if it’s ‘worth it’, e.g is there enough difference between ofsted good and outstanding to warrant a financially straining and disruptive move? The outstanding schools are also oversubscribed so not even a guarantee we would get a place!

Bear in mind that the wind can change almost overnight with schools. The "bad" school in my village suddenly became the most desired one when they got a new head.

Similarly, the school with the outstanding OFSTED, was known to be a bit shit but the management were great at ticking boxes so they got a good score.

Don't overstretch to move. Keep that money. If your child is bright then use it on a tutor or extra curricular activities when they're older.

I would stay where you are. Individual children can do very well in schools if they come from a home where they are encouraged to work hard and succeed.

Stay where you are

Pay off your mortgage in the next billion years

Enjoy some financial freedom in the future

Don't mortgage yourself to your eyeballs for a chance your child Rev may go to a better school

Things change an outstanding don't school now might not be in years to come or even be there and same for a good school it could get rated worse or even better or get turned into a bank

You want your kids to do well and they will naturally and of not you will put the work in with them with their homework

You can’t make such a big choice based on ofsted reports, but if you believe the schools around you to be good, then they’re good! I think it’s worth moving away from schools with bad reputations if that’s what you’d be faced with, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the issue.

Going against the grain, I think Ofsted ratings can change but an outstanding (or poor) school (not just according to Ofsted, I mean it's results/ reputation) doesn't change in 7 or 8 years. The biggest factor for any school is the demographic locally and that doesn't change drastically in a relatively short period like the one you're looking at.

We moved before DC started school - I think you'd miss all the social aspects for a family (not just the kids) if you moved part way through primary or before secondary - depends if that's important. Not to mention the stress of timing it all.

Financially, we did take on a bigger mortgage etc but our old house has barely increased in price since we left - the new house in "desirable" area has probably doubled so overall, we'll be better off once we've paid the mortgage off, even though it will take us longer to get there.

I would move to make sure my children weren’t in line to go to a secondary with a bad reputation. So many people say ‘a bright kid will do well anywhere’ but perhaps they haven’t been in a horrible school where bad behaviour and bullying are rife. If you can possibly do it, I’d move to secure a nicer school.

I live very near to an outstanding primary school - I didn’t even put it on my list. When I visited I didn’t like it at all - went with a school that fitted my daughter needs.
I would focus more on the secondary school (nearer the time) an outstanding school can drop and a other schools can rise especially as they get more funding to improve. Might be worth looking at thé secondary school choices in your area and make that the move? I know the local poor rating school near is in 10 years has never improved :(
Until you visit them you won’t know what your child is suited too.

I'm a teacher and take the difference between Oustsnding and Good with a pinch of salt. I avoid the poor rated schools, but have deliberately chosen to move away from an area with a choice of two Ofstsd Outstanding schools to an area with only Good schools. This is because I have studied the rest of the data too, and realised that the Outstanding school nearby has pupils getting below national average KS2 results, whereas the Good ones we've moved near get among the highest KS2 results in the country (with a relatively mixed demographic). We avoided an even better rated one for academics, though, because of low parental satisfaction and a reputation for bullying and hothousing, as well as very limited demographic (v low SEN, EAL, FSM). There's a lot more to it than just the Ofsted labels. Also worth reading the Ofsted reports thoroughly - for instance, for the Good school we've chosen for our boys, the only target for improvement in the report was something about pupils presenting work more nearly, which didn't really bother us. We put loads of data into a spreadsheet to find the schools we were interested in.

As a PP has also mentioned, it's also important to look at the secondary school they'd go on to afterwards. I would have thought this even more crucial, unless you're planning on moving again for that.

It might be worth checking when the schools received their outstanding grading from Ofsted. I am aware of a few schools in my area that haven't been inspected in more than 10 years because they were outstanding and their results have remained very good. Just because a school gets good results it doesn't mean that it doesn't have other issues. One school near me had been outstanding forever and hadn't been inspected until safeguarding concerns were raised due to sexual harassment etc and they are now in special measures. I read the more event ofsted report and it is damning. My son isn't old enough for school yet but my approach will be to choose a school that I get feel good about when I visit. Preferably it will be good or outstanding but I've worked in some fantastic schools that were requires improvement. They just didn't tick Ofsted's criteria for results/progress.