Thoroughly agree with what other people say about OFSTED reports being all over the place at the moment, a lot of school's are getting bad reports and certainly in our area there seems to be no doubt that it is to pave the way for academies. We are getting our first primary academy next september (rural s.e. england) and I'm sure there is going to be plenty more in the next few years. Frightening stuff.
And to be completely honest, I'm not sure just how much use OFSTED reports are. I would focus on your child. Is she happy? Is she fulfilled? Is she performing how you think she should be? Because in the end, that is all that matters. Of course with changes of children and changes of staff and the fifty thousand billion changes of policy and direction from goverment and Mr Gove that they introduce every other week, then it becomes inevitable that schools are embroilled in politics. The goalposts shift all the time, and not always in the direction of better schools I believe. An inspection is just a biopsy; and in the same way a skin biopsy from one part of the body may not reveal the infected lesion that sits elsewhere on the skin, a 3 or 5 day visit can in no way (in my opinion) reflect the life of a school. It can give you a snapshop, yes - it can tell you whether that Maths lession on the Monday morning was satisfactory or otherwise - but it can't tell you the nuances - whether it was windy that morning and all the kids were hyped up, or whether someone was upset that their guinea pig had died that weekend, or whether someone else was acting out because they were angry that their Dad hadn't turned up for contact that weekend. I'm not saying that a bad OFSTED doesn't mean you have no cause for concern, but there are more to schools than OFSTED. Your daughter doesn't care what grades the school was given. She cares if she feels safe, if she feels loved, if she feels inspired by what goes on around her. OFSTED can't give you that, it tries, but nothing so 2-dimensional can encapsulate it. The way I see it, is that a good school will make a child into one who is confident and proud within themselves, who is happy to get stuck in and learn new things, and who is excited by the world around them. Once all that is in place, they learn to read, write and count along the way. If your child has that, then I wouldn't worry. You go to a new school, in 18 months time they might have an OFSTED, in which time the staff has changed somewhat, the report framework will definitely have changed, and the political agenda has shifted again. Then it gets a bad OFSTED and we are back to square one. These reports make me mad, especially for primary. If you're happy, and she's happy, and there is some learning going on, then you've got the recipe for success.
And one last thing (promise!), the health and safety concerns may or may not be an issue. For instance, the most lovely school I know recently got dragged down hugely in their OFSTED due to the fact that the school is not locked/secure at all times. Now, whilst I know that child abduction may happen, it is incredibly rare, and the gate that is kept open by the nearby farmer who has a field that backs onto the school playing field, and often opens it to allow some of his animals onto the field who the children adore and get to pet and look after, brings a far greater benefit than the miniscule safety risk (I do realise that this may be different for a school that is not a small, rural village school where everybody knows each other).