A guide to national curriculum levels

[learnandsay]

www.stjohn.bucks.sch.uk/Newsletters/Newsletters/A%20guide%20to%20national%20curriculum%20levels%202009.pdf

You can't plan on the basis of what might or might not happen. You can only plan on the basis of what is happening.

but if you plan too far ahead ... OFSTED is fickle and the government more so if you base your plans on what they say today then by next week it will have changed completely [sigh] an inspection report reflects a single moment in time.

the best laid plans etc

Exactly, learnandsay - you can only plan on the basis of what you know, so you decide whether to accept the place, and then give it a go. IF it turns out to be the case that your child doesn't thrive, then you look again. At the moment, you have no idea what will happen with your child at that school...

Also, just to mention that my dcs' school had an Ofsted report that commented that the more able children weren't stretched enough, and I did wonder about it before DS1 started Reception - sure enough, it was sorted out almost immediately, and the last mini ofsted they had in literacy said that the more able children were, if anything, taking up too much of the teacher's time!

Just wait and see.

"You can't plan on the basis of what might or might not happen. You can only plan on the basis of what is happening."

However, you don't know what IS happening, becuase your source of information is an Ofsted report which talks about what WAS happening, over a period of 1 or 2 days, up to 3 years ago. Equally, data on 11+ entry from the school is historic.

To find out what is happening now, and much more importantly what is likely to happen in the future (because your child isn't even old enough for school yet, let alone getting to the point of 11+ etc), you need to visit the school and to talk to them. It is extremely likely that if an issue with the progress of able children was identified by Ofsted, there is a huge amount happening round able children in the school at the moment. To find out, you have to visit, and talk to them.

FWIW, before my (very able, on the ASD spectrum) DS started school, I was probably a bit like you - worried about how they would cater for his ability, keen to 'get him reading' [shouldn't have bothered, he taught himself before I ever thought of getting round to it], wondering about the quality of the school and where it fed into etc etc.

Then DS started school.... and the things I had worried about / you are currently worrying about weren't a problem at all. It was the social / emotional / practical side of schooling, that I hadn't really focused on, which tripped us up ... so much so that I would say that the ideal preparation for school is nothing to do with reading or counting, and everything to do with being able to eat a wide variety of foods, completely independently, in a busy dining room; being absolutely independent and as reliable as possible with respect to all aspects of toileting; skilled in all aspects of dressing, undressing and getting changed; being able to form friendships and work co-operatively with both individuals and groups of children, whether those children be 'like you' or 'completely unlike you'; and being able to take instructions from all adults and then carry on an activity independently...

Can I ask when your child is due to start school learnandsay

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9149277/Ofsted-inspections-may-be-damaging-lessons.html

Although it is an interesting article you bring to our attention mrz - my children all say the teaching during the OFSTED inspection was much more interesting/ fun than usual, and when I've asked my DDs friends also at the school, they've said much the same.

What angers me is that teachers at our school can pull out all the stops for the run up to and days of inspection - but they weren't prepared to do so when OFSTED weren't looking.

PastSellByDate does that not indicate the unreliability of the OFSTED process?

Inspectors make judgements from a single day in the school that labels a school outstanding for the next 3+ years.
My own school went from 1999 to 2006 without an inspection

First question the inspector asked the children as he entered my classroom 'Are Mrs Teacherwith2kids lessons usually like this?'

Being incorrigibly honest, the reply from one small boy was 'Yes, but she's more nervous because you're an inspector'....

Unlike in my last inspection where the first question was "what are you doing?" to which the defensive answer was "Nowt!! honest!"

She starts in September, mrz.

so waiting to find out if your application has been successful

Yes. But in a realistic way. I've got nothing against hope. But I don't recommend it.

Is she eating independently now, L&S? It's that kind of thing that will really make a difference to her experience of school.

In short, teacher, yes. Well, sometimes. At nursery she has to do everything independently, which she does. But the parents have always been a soft touch. Years ago a friend offered to take her to the supermarket. I found out that she intended to walk. I said my daughter will never make it that far on foot. My friend said she'll be fine. Well, she was fine. But with me she stands in my path in order to be lifted up about twenty feet out of our gate. And if I don't lift her up she runs round me and tries again, ad infinitum plus whinging. So I lift her up. (etc, etc) It's just easier than arguing about everything all the time.

Having said that, there are things which she's not allowed to do. I have a baby who habitually plays behind the livingroom door. My daughter used to fly through that door without caution. A few times she's got in pretty bad trouble for doing that and now she checks what's behind the door. I'm inflexible about that. So we can argue but just not all the time about things which don't really matter.