Tips for looking round a primary school...

[WizzyBizzy]

We are visiting our local primary soon and I'd like some advice on good questions to ask / things to look out for. It is an inner city school, rated 'Good' by Ofsted. There are some 'Outstanding' schools nearby, that have postage-stamp sized catchment areas (and we are outside of these) and people I've met in kids groups etc seem to turn their noses up at this particular school. From what we've seen of it so far we think it seems fine, but I want to be sure we're looking for the right things, as we really don't have a clue about how to tell whether a school is really any good / will suit out children.

TIA

Our school website is terrible especially compared to the websites of the two nearest schools. However ours is one of the best schools in the area and that is the only thing I can find fault with so I don't think it's that important.

Thanks. Some great advice here. I know that the tours tend to be by pupils, and I'm fine about that - I think it's a posititve - but I have also asked that we can meet with the head as I think that the headteacher is really important to the ethos of the school and aspirations of the children.

All other advice gratefully received and I'll let you know how we get on.

Does the schools classification of "outstanding" to "satisfactory" follow the normal performance appraisal pattern whereby "satisfactory"="not good enough", "good"="barely adequate" and "outstanding" is the only result that actually means it is any good. Our nearest school is "good" - should I be satisfied with this or is only "outstanding" acceptable?

No. 'Good' is actually considered good, particularly if it's a recent inspection, as Gove is trying to make it difficult for all schools to do well in inspections.
Read the actual words in the report, because there is a very narrow criteria for being able to get outstanding in terms of grading - it's not about the ethos of the school or how happy the parents are with the school or how good the teaching is or how good the leadership is (all things you might initially think are important). It's all about the data, and it's a very flawed system. Also, if it got 'Outstanding' 5 years ago, it won't have been inspected since, and may have changed considerably in that time.