Is This Normal? ( Changing Primary Schools)

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the school dd attends has quite a bad reputation, there was a change of heads 3 years ago, this head seems unpopular.

there has been a high staff turnover, and also of pupils which is my reason for posting.

there has been, since sept 2010, no less than 10 families who we started with left the school, dissatisfied.

is there a lot of change at Primary age usually?

dd is saying all her friends have left.

have any of you changed schools?

why?

the ofsted is satisfactory overall btw.

10 families have left! I'd be very concerned.

People don't normally change schools without moving. 10 families is an awful lot.

High staff turnover is also obviously a cause for concern.

There is a small change over at the school my kids are in (but then small school intake of 15 each year) but this year I know of 1 family that has left last year 2 left (one moved to South Africa the other to Scotland)

I would ask yourself how satisfied you are with the school etc and the head there is often a high overturn of staff with a new head its not always the "old" staff gets on with the new regime and they may feel that it is time for them to move on so that I would be less concerned about providing within the next year or so it begins to stabalise.

How large is the school? if it is a 60 or 90 intake 10 is not a huge amount as such but if it is a 15 or 30 then I would be concerned. Have the places been filled or how is it working?

Goodness that's allot, that would be half of my dd's year!
dd is now in Y1, 2 children left at the end of reception due to relocations and another left in October due to a more local house move (but too far to travel as we are rural), it is unusual to have as many go as dd's year has had, there really isn't much movement but it is an outstanding school from ofsted and and a fantastic school in reality as well so is very oversubscribed, once people have a place they tend to hand onto it at all costs!
What do you think about the school and the education your child is getting, that is the most important aspect, I wouldn't jump ship just because lots of other had unless my child had issues in the school. It could be that the children who have left had failed to get into their preferred schools and over the first term be offered places from the waiting list, are there oversubscribed schools in the area?

BTW to answer your question yes we have moved schools lets ssee

school 1 infant school dd 1 and dd2 attended dd1 all the way through she then continued to go on to school 2 the junior school.

dd2 was moved from infant school by our choice when it was discovered that she was dyslexic and the school was not helpful in aiding her to get some coping mechanisms with this (at one point I got told she cant be dyslexic she isnt clumsy by their Senco teacher!!!) after a 3rd meeting where they refused to explain to us whom it was they wanted dd2 to see they just wanted us to sign a piece of paper stating they could send her and our family to see any they felt appropriate and they could take appropriate action (we refused!) DH was asking for a job title we couldnt get one just got told " she works for the council" Whilst all of this was goin on dd2 went from a happy go lucky girl to a girl that constantly had some ailment or the oter (according to her like headache stomach ache - knee hurt) at that point I phoned up a private school near by and she went to have a trial date when she came out that day and looked at me with eyes shinnign I phoned dh and said we are moving her. he was not keen but arrived home early that day took one look at how dd2 was skipping around and said " she is back move her" and we did. Proceeded to put ds into that school and of all the schools we have dealt with it was by FAR the best. It was everything a school should be imo.

ffw 2 years and dd2 had to go to year 3 and thr private school was not co ed for this we knew we needed her into the school system again but had after long discussions decided to not send her to the junior school dd1 was in we felt it would not be able to serve her needs. We had intended to keep her in the private system when a huge financial situation hit us (my dh's buisness parnter ran off with close to 70K that we then became liable for) and after much debate back and forth we chose to move out of the area and at this point we changed schools for all the kids

They went to a tiny primary school (103 students) and dd3 has started school her is now in year 2)

dd2 then after much discusion back and forth decided she would like to go and live in Denmark with my sister for 6 months to experience Denmark and school there. She was there for 5 months then aked to come home she missed us (and wow did we her) she experienced the Danish school system and she ADORED it I know even today (3 years on) she would be back there like a shot if we could all move to Denmark..

dd1 is now in secondary school and come September dd2 will also be She has picked a different 2ndary to dd1 something that many expresses surprise we allowed her to do but I felt her argument that she didnt wish to always be dd1's little sister and dn's (whom lives with us) cousin was a very valid one. hence we permitted her the same her older sister and to pick the school she preferred. when ds goes in 2 years times he will be allowed to do the same. (and will likely go into a grammar school so will be in a 3rd school that year I will have 4 diffenret schools to deal with laughs)

so we have moevd through choice and moved through house move. All in all I would not be afraid of moving my child again if I felt it was the right decision. It most certainly was for dd2 whom got back her confidence when we got her out of her original (very well achiving oversubscribed "the school to get your child into " school) I have to admit our experience there has made me jaded about sats results and ofstead reports and I much more rely on my gut instinct and what people tell me.

I moved my dd from a small primary in a pretty similar situation. There was a small exodus (10 pupils from a school of 70) when the PPA cover teacher was assigned a class by the new HT. Parents knew from experience that the reason she hadn't had one for years was because the last class was removed from her after complaints of her emotional abuse of pupils and she kept her job mostly because of the weak governing body and by going off sick for a couple of years.I was unwilling to risk dd's wellbeing and the HT's actions meant that the trust had gone tbh.

as lonnie suggests in her first post, the old staff were disgruntled, made to reapply for their existing positions and not all were successful.

that explains something of the staff turnover.

there are 320ish pupils.

im not sure what i think about it all, im not unhappy with the school, but not happy either.

i know the parent governors, respect them etc. and they rate the school.

i wonder if it is just a transition period we are caught in.

Which year group is your DD in? Depending upon the area you live in, its proximity to the sought-after secondary schools etc. it does seem that families will move out of the area during Y4.

I teach in a 2-form-entry primary in SE London. We're too far from the grammar schools of Bexley and Bromley for children to get in unless they do exceptionally well in the 11+. My Y4 class had 27 children at the start of this academic year... it now has 22! One child's family emigrated, another family moved to the coast, two moved house to grammar school boroughs and another was given a place at a school closer to the home the family had moved to earlier in the year.

I can think of a number of other schools where the class sizes shrink as the children move up KS2 due to parents moving their children to private schools (so children are prepared for the 11+ - presumably working out that it's cheaper to pay for a couple of years of private primary education that 7 years of private secondary) or moving closer to the grammar schools.

The reasons behind a high staff turnover may be quite telling; if the teaching staff comprised a lot of teachers who have reached retirement age, or a number of teachers have left after maternity leave, or even promotion to Deputy/Headships elsewhere, that's very different from teachers taking less senior posts at other local schools out of desperation!

We've just changed our ds2 who is in Year 1.

We changed from an 'Outstanding' Primary school to a 'Good' Catholic primary 3 miles away.

It's been the best thing we've ever done. We changed due to the poor behaviour from the other boys in class and constant low level disruption stopping ds2's learning.

He now has proper reading books, proper homework, decent peers, competent teacher, good headteacher and a calm environment He's started to make real progress with his reading now and he's only been there for a couple of weeks.

Do what your instincts tell you. ds2's old school has a great reputation and exam results, but the stuff that was going on and the level of poor behaviour was terrible and I saw red flags and got him out fast.

SE13 DD is year 3...she is hitting her targets and in the top groups.

there is a lot of disruption it seems, but it would be yet more disruption if i were to move her, and who is to say that school would be better?

I too would be concerned about teachers and children leaving. What reasons did your DD's friens parents give for the switch? However mass exodus is not unusual in SE London. I lived in SE15 for many years and this happened in Reception (when some decided to go private or got places in further away but mor stable and affluent postcodes) and again in year 3 (although the places were always taken by others glad to move from other even worse schools). I have friends who teach in Catford schools who say they struggle to hold onto children. It used to be that people moved during year 5 for secondary cachements but people are moving out of London with their children at younger ages as often you need to live in an area for a quite awhile before you can apply in October of Year6 for secondary.

I don't want to panic you but have you considered what to do for secondary?

Is the school you want to send your DD to much better? do they have places? do most of the children move onto the same secondary?(continuity of friendship)Does the other school have a lot of movement? At my DD's primary the 48 year 6's went to 28 different secondaries all over the place.

It is a difficult question - if your DD makes friends at the new school and likes her teacher she will be happy - but you need to check the other school is better in terms of day to day acre etc. Oh - another thought how many subs do they use, are many teachers off on long term illness. In year 3 my BF's DD was taught by a series of ever changing subs and she grew to hate school.

Good luck

Sorry for all the typos - am on MN in the almost dark as the rest of the family are watching a film

hi haggis,

its not feasible to move her, unless we move house.

the local secondary that she will probably attend also has a bad reputation (sigh) but seems to be turning around.
a lot of children from the current school will go there.

there are other schools surrounding (that are always oversubscribed)

i wonder if im being naive thinking DD will get a fair education
or are the others just following fashion

I moved DS when he was in Y3, he was doing really well with his work and was slightly above average. But due to horrendous behaviour in the class, I had little choice but to change his school. It was the best thing I could have done.

Since moving, he is very happy and progressing even more that he was at his previous school. I have no regrets about moving him, I just wish I had done it sooner tbh.

My junior school head left (same time I moved to secondary, but dad was a governor). He had been coasting his way to retirement for a good few years and staff had got used to doing what they wanted. A new head came in with some new ideas and the existing staff weren't happy! There was a fair bit of movement then.

As for pupils, if people are thinking of moving for whatever reason, then a head or certain members of staff leaving could be the catalyst.

Or has a major employer closed / relocated? Something like that could mean lots of peole having to move for work.

There could also be a domino effect- how many parents wondered if they should move, but after 5 (or 6, or 7....) people had gone and jumped ship without thinking of their reasons?

If you are happy with the teaching and the direction the school is going in, why move? Take advantage of the smaller classes!