Hi PseudoBadger:
Just to say admission has always given sound guidance on things OFSTED/ LEA & much of what was posted above rings true with me.
As a parent the thing to look at is KS2 SATs - English/ Maths Combined target at present is that a minimum of 60% of pupils should attain National Curriculum Level 4 (NC L4) in English/ Maths combined. From 2014 this will be 65%. So first thing to do is to check the run of KS2 SATs results over the last few years. This can be done through:
- School data dashboard (data for 2011/ 2012 cohort): dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk/ - just type postcode of school.
and
- Department for Education performance tables 2011-2012 cohort data : www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/ - and earlier years (2011 - 1994): www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/archive/index.shtml - again just type in postcode.
Unfortunately this is clunky - so you'll have to put the data into a spreadsheet or table, but the point is that you can track results over several years.
If the results are good (say 85% or higher achieved NC L4 in both maths/ english) - and fairly consistent - then the issue is elsewhere. Possibilities could include: 1) children arrive at a good level of EYFS attainment but don't do as well as they should? Maybe children do well in KS1 but don't achieve notional 2 full NC Levels progress in KS2 (i.e. many achieve NC Level 3 end KS1 but not all go on to achieve NC Level 5, as would be expected).
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This could reflect teaching. The observed teaching may not be meeting criteria OFSTED currently judging teaching on (which as an outsider do seem to be confusing at the moment - certainly unwritten).
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This could reflect monitoring of progress (this would be the internal recording of pupils progress monitored throughout the school year - this is usually through a computer programme and can track pupils through their time at the school). In our area it is done against APP points, not NC levels - but the idea is to see so much progress per child per year or years.
If the results are showing a downhill trajectory (which is the case at our school - started out early 2000s with regularly achieving 90% NC L4 KS2 English/ Maths Sats and last six years this has been dropping fast, with last year's cohort just scraping 62%. Each year seems to do worse than the previous year. I suspect if this continues we will have a similar verdict to yours at our school when OFSTED next come a calling. Indeed, it is an open rumour that HT will be retiring soon - so I think most of us can foresee a forced conversion to academy status in the next few years. Not sure whether that's a good or bad thing. DD1 will have already moved on and DD2 would just have one year left - so not sure it's any more disruptive than recent building work at the school.
Now as a parent all this means is that change may be coming to your school. What I will say is sometimes that can be a great thing. A friend chose a nearby school which had a reputation for being so-so, because it was close by and had great after school child care which she needed to suit her work situation. A new head was appointed when her DD was in Y1 and the school is doing astoundingly well. Rated Outstanding by OFSTED last year, achieving a high proportion of NC Level 5 for English/ Maths at KS2, doing really innovative things that certainly us parents would love to see in our schools....so don't just knee jerk react against rumours that the Head is leaving soon or the school may go through conversion to an academy. It isn't necessarily a bad thing.