DC school latest OFSTED report, inadequate

[Dillydollydaydream]

Not happy. DC brought home their schools latest OFSTED inspection report today and it is absolutely shocking.
We live in a good area, the primary feeds into an 'ouystanding' secondary school with the best GCSEs locally.

The previous report was good 3 years ago, don't understand why it's gone downhill so much since then?!
There's lots of '4's which is really awful.
The school is holding an emergency meeting for parents Tuesday evening to answer questions and discuss plans to make improvements.

Will they be able to turn things around or am I going to have to look in to trying to move DCs?

The school hasn't changed since yesterday!

If you were happy with the school yesterday, and happy with the progress your child is making, and they are happy - why would you consider moving?

And if you're not happy - why has it taken an OFSTED report to goad you into action?

Has it been seen as a coasting school? (ie intelligent, well behaved, hard working children from stable, supportive backgrounds who do well because of this and not because of the school)?

Are your children happy?
Are you happy with their progress?

What are the areas which are 4s?

Go to the meeting on Tuesday, and listen for ways in which you can support the school.

Our DC moved to a school that was put into Special Measures about 3 weeks after they started. (I don't think my 3 DC were solely responsible ). At the meeting that was held with the LA, the school was able to explain some things to parents that had been kept confidential and had a bearing on the situation. DH became a governor. Parents rallied round the school, and within 2 years the school came out of special measures. We saw lots of good changes.

An OFSTED report is based on a snapshot of two days in the school. When schools prepare for an inspection they often tie themselves up into so many knots and individual teachers get so stressed out and tired that they are not performing at their best anyway.

If you are happy with the school, your kids are happy and they are making progress, then don't worry. If none of those three things are true, you should have already made your concerns known.

If the school is graded inadequate in more than one area it will usually be placed in special measures and given lots of support.

My DC are quite young Year 1 and Year 4 and we thought they were ok.
The report said from year 3 - 6 when the children leave to go up to high school they make inadequate progress, teaching and leadership are poor.
Although they enjoy school it's just concerning What the report has said.

There are 13 '4's :(
The only areas. They achieved a 2 was safeguarding children, pupil dependant parts - attendance etc, the early years part was fine too.
It's the performance and teaching in the older classes that's the concern.
So yes the school is on special measures now.
Hopefully they can turn things around, the meeting will be interesting.
There was a new head teacher this year, not sure of that's relevant.

What is % of level 4s in year 6? What is the VA, and how does the report explain the drop from an overall 2 to an overall 4 in 3 years? What has happened in that time?

If I'm looking at the right bits. 4+ in English and math % is 63%?
Average for LA is 67%
Not sure I understand the VA, CVA is 98.2.
Apparantly the targets for children aren't challenging so therefore they don't make progress to the best of their abilities.
The pupils books show inadequate progress in most classes due to teachers lack if expertise in planning lessons to address differing learning needs.
It doesn't give reason for poor attainment during the past 4 years, something to ask Tuesday!

there is your answer for the poor ofsted inspection ... inadequate was decided before they even stepped in the school

That's your answer. The CVA is shocking.

But you need to know what's changed- it's quite hard to go from 2 to 4 in 3 years.

I'm an experienced primary school governor of a school that's gone from good to satisfactory in 3 years- I'd be happy to look at the report and suggest some questions for you to ask if you pm me the name of the school. Quite understand if you don't want to!

Sorry to sound stupid. What exactly is the CVA?
Thanks for the help.

current value added

in other words how much progress the children make over their time in school obviously 100% + is desirable

What sort of thing could cause a change from 2 to 4 in 3 years? Is it something the school can be up front about after such a bad ofsted?

Honestly it could just be a low ability class or even one or two children who didn't turn up for the tests if it is a single form entry school

would that affect the results and impression that the inspectors get of the school in such a drastic way that the school has to go into special measures?

Seeker thanks for offer of looking at the report, just looked and The latest one is not yet published on the ofsted website.

To be honest ignore.

My sons primary school of which dh is a governor knows it will be put into special measures next inspection as they are a single intake and current year 6 has only 20 in the class , 2 with special needs in it & not a particularly 'high achieving' year group.

They know this group won't make sats results expected & can do nothing beyond what they are doing.

It's an otherwise excellent school.

Contextual value added - compares how much progress children make at your school compared to others with a similar intake. If all the pupils performed exactly as expected and made the expected rate of progress their score would be 100. 98.2 means that children are not making an expected rate of progress based on their prior attainment and compared to similar children.

Hmm. I agree that an overall unsatisfactory should be ignored in some circumstances. But 13 4s indicates some more deep-seated issues.

It may be that in the longer term you may need to look in to trying to move your DC. However, I would give it a while. When our DC's school went into Special Measures quite a few children were moved almost immediately. Some of them returned a matter of weeks later.

Do you trust the new head? I think that will be crucial going forward.

Mrz- one low ability year would not produce a drop from 2 to 4 in 3 years- the low ability year 6 would have been a low ability year 2 or 3 at the last inspection.

Our school scraped a "good" 3 years ago mostly because of a freakishly bright year 6 - but we were satisfactory 3 years before and satisfactory last week-we weren't a 4 even though our results last year were shocking.

We had a notice to improve after one bad KS2 dip in a class where we had a high number of low ability children arrive during Y6. The inspectors returned within the year and the notice was removed

We had actually gone from Oct 1999 to June 2006 without being inspected