Outstanding primary schools around Christchurch - none - really?

[whereishome]

Hi everyone,

Typical!!! After months of researching where to move to we absolutely LOVE the Christchurch area in Dorset. New Milton/Milford on Sea are also lovely.

But now that I am researching schools the Ofsted reports are so average. Obviously, I am not placing all focus on these but I do need a school that is doing extremely well academically (very academic ds).

Can anyone help me and save me the task of trawling through every single Ofsted report.

I am looking for an outstanding primary school around the Christchurch area but can be flexible as we haven't moved yet. I also know the best schools will almost certainly be full but am prepared for that : ))

I would so appreciate your help and any words of wisdom : )))

Hi

Having lived and worked in the area, as part of my job I was visiting most of the schools within your catchment. To be honest apart from Pennington (purely because of the area), I think most of them should be OK, but I see what you mean about the average, quite surprising really. You do need to watch out for being too small in some of the villages.

Brockenhurst was always a lovely school, but that was a few years ago. As was Burley, always impressive on visits, but quite small.

Personally, I would be looking towards Milford On Sea, I believe they had an 'outstanding' Ofsted. Mind you, our old school was outstanding, but didn't quite live up to that!

Wish it was me moving down there!!! Lots of good Independents too!

Thanks for your interesting and knowledgeable reply. You are quite right - M

Oops - apologies. You are quite right about Milford on Sea being outstanding. And that seems to be about it! I don't suppose you remember Mudeford Quay primary - that seems to be quite good. I am so disappointed as it has taken us months looking at areas. We decided not to look at schools as a deciding factor as we did that before and ended up in Surrey. The schools were great but we didn't settle so well. I will keep searching for good schools before throwing the towel in. The area is lovely and would be a wonderful place for the children to grow up in. But being able to go anywhere in the UK I also want to choose a place with excellent schools. Don't suppose you know of anywhere which lists the outstanding schools in a quick manner. Ofsted list them by county but not by area - unless I have not looked properly!

Just a quick warning not to get TOO obsessed by Ofsted's Outstanding label.

I chose a 'Good' school for my - very academic - DS, over several Outstanding options locally, and have never regretted it. They focus absolutely on the children and their needs, not on box-ticking for Ofsted, and the children thrive.

Also schools can move very quickly into and out of the category. A local Oustanding secondary became Satisfactory a singe Ofsted visit later.

I'd look at Good as well as Outstanding schools, and visit a few to get the feel of each place. I had focused on one apparently Outstanding primary for DS (we too were moving into the area) only to discover when visiting it that they had gained that by rigorous (though covert) selection .. I was grilled about my background, my husband's job, my own educational background, my son for a full half hour before being 'allowed' to walk round the school with the head, who (once he had established that I was the 'right kind of person') spent the whole time telling me how he kept 'the riff raff' out to keep his Outstanding level.

Needless to say, DS didn't go there.

I find searching school league tables on the BBC website, ordering it not by raw scores but by CVA (value the school actually adds) very instructive ... definitely points out which schools are good because they take in a very able intake, and which actually DO something with children educationally. Aforesaid Outstanding school was near the top of the raw scores, but fell to the bottom of the CVA, whereas the school we chose had an exceptionally high CVA score.

Ditto Teacher, soooo wish I hadn't been swayed by an Ooutstanding"label.

Wasn't sure on visiting but got a bit persuaded by the Outstanding OFSTED report.New head started and the first inspection later said school has plummeted to Satisfactory. They're blaming intake but the teaching was only ever good(tis now satisfactory) and progress is only satisfactory(actually dire imvho). Said school was extremely arrogant(still is imvho)and basically just let the intake do the work for them.I'd never choose an Outstanding school again.

Good is what I'd aim for as they'd clearly be doing a lot right(and good is no mean feat) however they've still got goals to aim for instead of thinking we're great and can't improve in anything. Outstanding leads to complacency and arrogance in my experience.

Obviously there are fab Outstanding schools but the title isn't everything,gut instinct is just as important.Make sure your dc are in a school you like as when/if the title goes they'll still be there.

It's not only schools who managed to secure themselves an Outstanding label in a spot check by Ofsted who would be able to educate an academically able child. A school could easily be good, or even 'only' satisfactory but still have attained outstanding in that particular area. Or, perhaps, been outstanding in most areas apart from some administrative technicality on safeguarding, for instance, which might downgrade them.
Lose your attachment to that 'outstanding' misnomer tag. There is so much more to a school than what Ofsted thinks of it.

I completely agree - Ofsted Inspections should be viewed with a dollop of cynicism. Firstly, Ofsted is merely a snapshot - it isn't always an accurate representation of how good a school is, moreso it is a reflection of whether they have ticked the right boxes. The inspection could have been some years ago, there may have been many changes in teaching/head teaching staff and the report could actually be inaccurate now. The other thing to remember is the framework has recently changed and it is much tougher to get an outstanding grade. My DD goes to our local 'Good' village school. The school was recently Ofsted inspected again (March this year) and narrowly missed out on an 'oustanding' grade; the teaching in EYFS was deemed good, rather than outstanding, and the new framework states that teaching must be outstanding in all areas.

Check the school league tables on DfE website and visit the schools, rather than focus on the Ofsted reports.

Thanks for all your posts. You are quite right and I will look more behind the words and grades of the Ofsted reports. Also great advice about looking at the BBC raw data scores and the school league tables. Not sure where to locate these but will have a good attempt at doing so.

I agree that word of mouth and reputation has just as much to say, if not more, than Ofsted reports. So if anyone has a gem of a school to tell me about in the Christchurch/New Milton/Milford area..........please share : ))))))

I will be visiting the area in a few weeks time to visit a few schools so need to do my homework in the meantime. As I said before, I know the good schools will be over-subscribed but am happy to teach them at home and park up next door (am a teacher who loves teaching). Thanks again!

Here is the DfE one, OP.

Thanks Bunnyjo. Appreciated. I found them last night and am now trying to work out which stats to focus on. The main school we are lookIng at is 94% at level 4 and only 26% at level 5. Not sure if this is quite poor. Ds has just got level 3 in all his sats so I want to help him continue to do well. Should I be looking more at the high achievers column? All a new ball park for me :)

If it is of any help:

DS's (Ofsted Good) school got
L4 96 (Maths) / 98 (Writing) / 98 (Reading)
L5 74 M (including 15% who got level 6, but this can only be reported this year so won't be in the figures you are looking at, which will be last year's) / 60 (Writing) / 77 (Reading)

HOWEVER the main point is that that compares with L3 results at the end of KS2 which are around the 40 - 50% mark depending on the cohort (a bit lower for writing), and an intake in Reception which is broadly average in terms of attainment.

So DS's school adds a lot of value, as around 25 - 30% of children make sufficient progress to move from Level 2 in Year 2 to Level 5+ in Year 6 (and also make above expected progress in KS1 to get an above average number of Level 3s at that point).

So the 26% may be good, or not good, depending on the context. is it possible to find out how many children in that school got L3 in KS2? If very few, then 26% at L5 in Year 6 is good - but if it's around 25% again, then that represents not such good progressas able children are only making the 'expected' 2 levels even though they could have been capable of more.

Also, if looking at small schools, do look over several years of data as a single weak or strong cohort - or even a single weak or strong pupil - can have a major effect on the stats! DS's school is 60 intake, so the figures remain quite stable, but his old village school with an intake of 20 had figures which fluctuated very substantially from year to year as a single child represented 5%!

Thanks for taking the trouble and time to write your post. Very informative. The only problem that concerns me about the 26% is that even if they are entering the school with say 26% of level 3, that is still going to indicate a lot of catch up work which would leave ds very bored. Your school sounds to be good. Just curious, which county are you in? We were in Surrey and I think this has been the catalyst of my frustration as the school stats are generally very high. But we have decided that the New Forest area offers so much for the children and is an area we really like, so we want to make it work. But not at the expense of education. I have taken the children out of private and know that doesn't have to be such bad news - there are some excellent state schools out there. I just want to be a little greedy and seek them out ; )

I would also second not taking Ofsted reports as the be all and end all. When my DS was due to start reception, we were living in a not very nice area and I did not want him to go to any of the schools there and luckily due to a small birth year I got him in a school in the next borough (we lived on the border) where he was going to nursery. It had an outstanding ofsted and I was so pleased he had got into an outstanding school. Then we had to move. I had the choice of 3 schools that had places available in our new area, one was too far to travel and the other two were Good and satisfactory. Going off the ofsted reports I would have applied for the 'Good' school but decided to travel down and look around them first. I am so glad I did. The 'Good' school didn't have a nice feel about it, the head couldn't be bothered to introduce himself properly and I just didn't like it. I have heard since that they have issues with bullying too.
I looked around the 'satisfactory' school second, and as soon as I walked in I knew it was the school for DS. it had a really good feel, pastoral care seemed good which was an important consideration for me due to DS personality and the staff and teachers were interested in meeting us etc.

I honestly couldn't be more pleased with my choice and so glad I didn't discount the school because it was only 'satisfactory'.

DS is intelligent and has come on in leaps and bounds. They recognise his skills, put him on G&T register for the subjects he excelled in and make sure he is challenged according to his needs as well as teaching good morals and citizenship.

The main reason they get a lower ofsted report is due to attendance. In my view that is not the schools fault as parents who don't think schooling is important will let their children have days off regardless of what the school do.