Is there big difference between good and outstanding schools?

[Fiona2011231]

So I was told that I only got the 2nd preference school, which is rated Good by Ofsted.

I called the 1st choice school (outstanding by Ofsted inspection) and was told the cut off distance this year is very small. It is only 270 metres while last year it was nearly 500 metres. Also, this year in that 30-pupil class, 17 managed to enter thanks to the sibling policy. So even though I will be in the waiting list, I don't think my chance is high.

I'm resigned to the possibility that my son will study in the 2nd preference school for a long time.

In that case, may I ask if there are really big differences between a good and oustanding primary school? In the oustanding school, pupils achieved an average points score of 33.1 per pupil in Year 6 Sats, while in the other schools, pupils got the score of 28.4.

Is this really a big gap if you hope your child will be taught well enough for exams into a grammar, or even a private, school?

Thank you for your advice.

Absolutely agree that an 'outstanding' school can sometimes have staff who reckon anything that goes wrong must be your (child's) fault, not theirs, and treat you accordingly!

This doesn't go for all outstanding schools, of course, but in our vast experience of, ooh, three local schools, the 'good' school is the most proactive and flexible towards the needs of each child, followed by the truly 'outstanding' one which incidentally has a huge SEN intake and trailed miserably by the other 'outstanding ' school, which tends to maintain standards by either being hostile to a child's needs from the start or subtly blaming their misery on their own actions bitter, me?

My DDs primary has been good, satisfactory, good (DD2's cohort did SAt, SAts and more SATs to earn them that).

Their secondary good with some areas outstanding, satisfactory and now is in special measures. What's changed - it's GCSE results have got better!

Ofsted are a fucking joke, but not as it's my DDs lives and futures they are fucking about with a very funny one.

DC school was good for ages then Satisfactory for 7 yrs then just returned to Good few months ago.

It's the same ruddy school. I think some of their admin is better nowadays than say, 4-6 yrs ago, but otherwise it's the same ruddy school. I bet I couldn't tell the difference if it were graded Outstanding, either.

A friend teacher of mine (now headteacher) told me that quite often a Good school tried harder to improve and become outstanding than an Outstanding school to stay outstanding. The only way is up and all that...

a teacher friend of mine I mean...

Earlyinthemorning - I think that is very true. Once you have the processes in place which makes a school outstanding then you can stay there, all other things being equal, like no change of head or a big turnover of staff. It is getting to outstanding that takes all the work because you have to track down and work on all the things that are holding you back. That can work for the children though. It isn't necessarily a bad thing.