Tell me about KS1 stuff if your dc go to an ofsted outstanding primary please

[chatworth]

I just want to know what an 'outstanding' school is like in terms of:

• how frequently the kids read - individually and in groups
• how much communication there is about what they are learning
• how differences in ability are managed.

Tia

Dd's school rated outstanding. Guided reading once or twice a week, ta individually once a week, often by other helper once ot twice, two books changed daily if read. Teacher will see you that day if no after school meeting. Open access to children's work if you want to see it, not just parents evening. No ability tables, not sure how much differentiation of work as haven't seen other chdren's work in dd's group ( of course!).
Strong head, stable staff. But before ofsted last year it was satisfactory!!! It's so fickle.

Meant to say reads to class teacher individually every two to three weeks or if you raise issue in reading diary. The teacher tests phonics knowledge weekly until the 42 sounds are known. Ta tests high frequency words once a week. Sounds so much written down- not sure what they do wrt maths though.

My DD's school has been judged 'outstanding' - last time it was 'satisfactory'.

DD's reading is heard once or twice a week. We have a meeting at the start of the year about what they are going to be learning, plus info in the homework book and parents evenings. Access to teachers is much much better than in other outstanding schools that I know of - most of the local ones seem very good at keeping parents at arm's length.

All classwork is done in groups - there are three levels, or maybe four. My DD is on the G&T register for two subjects - they don't seem to do anything extra but there definitely seems to be enough provision for her. I'm impressed that they manage so well - there are a lot of kids with below-average attainment, so the teacher must have to work pretty hard to make classes accessible for them and still challenging for the brighter kids.

I visited an 'outstanding' school as aprt of my professional development. The Head explained why they were outstanding:

They are a small 2 form entry infant school in a very good, supportive catchment area. They judge alot of their children to enter school at below the expected level (yeah right!!). They have very good results in the SATS at Year 2. (No doubt you would when you judge the children so inaccurately in Year R).The Ofsted team looked at all the taeching in the school and none of it was judged outstanding, only good or satisfactory. BUT.... because the Year 2 results are very good and they have good intervention programmes in place Ofsted decided they were outstanding!!

The school I teach in was satisfactory at our last inspection. It's a 2 form entry primary school and our children genuinely enter way below expectations - pretty deprived area. End of Foundation Stage results and Reception itself was judged good, as was KS1 results. Our KS2 results let us down - despite the fact that the value added is huge - so we can never be outstanding.

The Reception unit I saw at the other school was no different from ours - in fact, I was shocked that the teaching was appalling!! The teacher confused the children, I had no idea what she was on about, so what hope did a class of 4 and 5 year olds have? When they weren't coming up with the answers she wanted, she got quite stroppy and sarcastic to them!!

Ofsted is a game - if your results are good, they don't really dig around in the rest of the stuff. So the teaching could be shite (in my opinion) with the children learning despite the teaching because they get alot of support at home etc, but the school will still be judged well.

Our Ofted is pretty rubbish but the school is excellent and my children thrive there.

I agree Lara2

Our 'satisfactory' school works so hard. Children are below average on entry. 40% of children have free-school meals. We also have a special unit attached. We can never achieve above average sats results and average sats results are a limiter on how good an ofsted report. E.g. everything else can be 'good' but we can't get a 'good'!

I think that good sats results because of a clever intake can warp an inspector's perception and they will be less critical!

My 3 are at an independent school but I would not have chosen the dull, complacent 'outstanding' school close to us for anything.

As I said on the other thread; give me a vibrant, improving school over a complacent, 'we we judged outstanding due to supersonic results' school any day.

Often, but not always, over reliance on parents to teach them to read before Reception, hear them read every night and teach alongside the school.

IME, those judged outstanding in more deprived areas generally are more likely to be so. But then on another day, they could also be satisfactory.

my dd goes to a satisfactory school, thought i would post so that you could compaire.

dd is in year1 and in a mixed year1/2 class as only a small school so year1 is split.
They listent o her read once at least once a week by herself and they do guided reading in their ability groups once a week too. They are streamed for maths and english and mix between year1,2 and reception so all children are woring with like abilities.
We get a letter home every half term letting us know what they will be covering that half term. At teh start of every term they also send home a book with a weeks worth of work in so we can see what they have been doing. You take your child into the class room every morning so you can see their work and speak to the teacher ect. They have well done assemblys every week where they children are rewarded for good work they have done.
The only thing im not completely satisfied with is that we only get 1 propper parents evening a year other than that i could be happier with the school and dd's progress. I really dont think much of offstead its such a snap shot of what they school is like i dotn think that it can be very acurate.

My DS goes to a "satisfactory" school and sounds very like most of the "outstanding" schools on here.