Shock OFSTED. What now?

[Chocovore]

I did post a while back about something fishy over our schools OFSTED. We finally got the verdict today - Outstanding to Inadequate in one fail swoop. How the hell did that happen? What happens now? Will the Head leave? It says they may be converted into an Academy. Just can't believe this is happening. Wonder whether we should jump ship now or hang on and see what happens? I have Ds2 due to start in Sept and feel like we have all been very let down!

Sorry, that isn't under the 'unfairness' bit. Apologies if my post was confusing. They are disputing loads of issues and things that they say are factually incorrect mostly around data management systems.

Anyway, I will explore other options locally just to see where we stand. The complication is I have DS2 about to start in Sept. If a more local school has a PAN of 20 (composite classes of 30) is that an ICS issue? Or donthey still have leeway as the PAN is 20?

Gosh, how worrying for you OP.

Although you are panicking, I would wait to read the report and see what the issues are.

I am shocked at the schools' "excuses" though. Aside from the alleged behaviour of one of the inspectors, the rest of the "excuses" don't hold any weight at all.

Supply teachers, kids offsite, head away (poss on a conference), kids doing tests, all perfectly normal IMHO.

DS's school were inspected a week before the whole school moved to a new site! Everything was in boxes! According to the HT, the school still got a very fair appraisal though.

Oops posted too soon...

On a positive note, schools that fail their OFSTED do get huge amounts of time/ resource/ mentoring/ checks/ new staff in order to raise their game.

Two of our local schools went from failing to good in a very short space of time because of this.

"On a positive note, schools that fail their OFSTED do get huge amounts of time/ resource/ mentoring/ checks/ new staff in order to raise their game."

Not anymore, LA man said to us basically that they would support the school in any way the could but their budgets had been cut and they had no money.

Really Littleducks, that is terrible. Not the case at all here, perhaps our LA has more money. Bad that there is such disparity.

OP you may need to ask what measures will be taken and what support will be given/accepted to turn things around.

This happened to ds's school a few years ago, attainment and, in particular, the teaching of maths were heavily criticised. They had a notice to improve. They worked really hard,took advice, moved around some of the staff (eg. The maths co-ordinator moved to nursery, where actually she has been very effective) and generally got the kick up the arse they needed. I feel they had become complacent.
When they were re-inspected a year later, they got good with some outstanding features. It can be done.

Here:
www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/106463
If you look at January 2008 then march 2009 you can see how it is possible to make huge strides.
The interim assessment in 2012 states that they have maintained standards and won't be inspected until at least summer 2013.

Chocovore:

It's worrying - there's no denying it.

But I think as others have suggested you need to consider:

How are your DC's doing in the school?

Are they progressing as you'd like?
Are you generally happy with atmosphere of school?
Are teacher's approachable and appear to know your children?
Are your children happy there?
Are you happy with the environment (upkeep of grounds/ building but also the general atmosphere)?

Finally where do children from this primary go on to Senior School? - this really is critical - it may be struggling right now but if it feeds into the best senior school in the area it may not be worth jumping ship to a school which feeds into a sink senior school.

If the answer to most of this is positive - then I'd hold tight and see what changes come. As someone suggested above - there is a likelihood a lot of resources will be diverted to your school and that may mean being a student at the school during this time is a good thing.

You cannot control how the school is run and jumping ship may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Great OFSTED results are only good on the day (and as I know school's can put on quite a show for OFSTED bearing no resemblance to normal day to day there) and individual year KS2 SATs results are really only worth noting if the school is consistent - but having said that there can be 'bad' years - or years because of mass maternity leave (as has effected my DD1) - teaching hasn't been as consistent across their time in the school.

Finally I've posted a lot about the disappointment with DD1's progress in Reading/ Maths at our school in YR - Y2. It's meant I've had to really work hard to support it at home - buying workbooks, signing up to on-line maths tutorial, ensuring lots of reading books available (we have issues with books not coming home from school) - and after years of slowly working with her, it has meant that DD1 (now Y5) is doing well - so don't forget that you can also do quite a bit at home to support learning at this stage - it isn't all down to the school. For us school is day care and a social experience for DDs - and we've come to terms with that. We find it very liberating.

HTH

What Past said but be aware if said school was previously outstanding there may well be an arrogance that won't go away.This means it's very difficult when trying to work with the school as any criticism(which obviously there may well be) is just brushed aside and you will be turned into that parent.That's fine if you have a thick skin but if you don't frankly it's horrible.

If you're the type to just run a blind eye to things that you may question re your dc's education this won't be a problem.

Not the type to turn a blind Eye! And I think you are right regarding the arrogance. In reading their response the report, at no point do they seem to accept that anything needs to change. This is my biggest worry.

My son is very happy there and I think he has done just OK. I have nothing to compare it with though. If I had to guess, I would say he is a bright child who went in above average and hasn't really progressed that much in school. He has not been pushed. We do a lot of work with him at home though and I think this is how he has maintained an above average score. The juniors gets the biggest criticism and this is my fear as he is about to start that in Sept.

No specific secondary school to feed into, we still have Grammars here and it is our hope he would be suitable for that. There is one alternative school nearby which is consistently good but they are pretty much full atm. Saying that, I think we must be near if not at the top of the list geography wise. Am waiting for a call back from the Head. I happen to know that someone who has a reception place there for Sept desperately wants a reception place at our current school so there might be possibility to swap (waiting list criteria dependent I suppose). She may also have changed her mind now of course!

Just had an email back from county saying Ds2 is now top of the list out of 7 for waiting list for this alternative school for reception class!

Chocovore, I think your latest post sums up the position quite neatly, the school thought it was outstanding, was complacent in not pushing its pupils to achieve the very best they could and Ofsted when they came visiting saw exactly that.
My concern would be why Ofsted did not go for requires improvement, which is what a complacent school tends to get. That is there is nothing wrong fundamentally with the school that as swift kick up the backside will not resolve. To go to inadequate either suggests more fundamental issues or that the Ofsted inspectors for whatever reason have been over harsh with their assessment. Without being able to see the Ofsted report and the school's response it is impossible to tell which may be more appropriate.

Thanks all for your help and experience. Yes, it does seem a very drastic plummet. Hopefully I will find out more at the meeting and can update.

Believe it or not, OP, I think your school is now in a GREAT position. Governments do not like Failing Schools on their books, so your child's school is likely to get a whole heap of "kick up the arse" help.

Changes will need to be madestaff and governors (especially) can become complacent, it's humanand it won't be easy. Like another poster, our primary went shooting down to a 4 in Spring 2012. It was inspected again last week and we believe it's solid 2s with Outstanding features.

It hasn't been easy, but I'm glad we didn't jump ship. I now feel our children are in a school that truly understands what is expected of it and can deliver.

Admission I'd hazard a guess that the reason why the school got inadequate rather than requires improvement, is that any school getting inadequate will automatically be forced to become an academy. Ultimately that is what the government want.

Our school had its Ofsted last year and should really have got requires improvement. It did indeed require improvement, but a new Head was already in situ ( as of 6 weeks before the inspection) and had already developed a rigorous plan to address the issues and some good progress had been made. We got inadequate. Now we are becoming an academy as from next year.

Some may feel there are ulterior motives at work.

A similar thing happened at a school a family friend's children attend.

www.saveroke.co.uk/index.php/news/latest-news

They went from outstanding to special measures and were then packaged off to Lord Harris as an academy. I don't know the ins and outs but it all seemed a bit dodgy

It's incorrect that an Inadequate (4 Ranking) automatically becomes an Academy.

I reiterate, our school received a 4 in Spring 2012 and was inspected again, last week, receiving a Good (2 Ranking). It has not been turned into an Academy.

Happened less dramatically at my kids school about 16 months ago, school went from good to requires improvement, the head left, some staff left, there was an interim ht for 2 terms and quite a few things about the school changed. Afternoon break for ks1 scrapped and replaced with daily golden time (bad) , rigid ks1 reading book lists enforced and books regraded, result, my dd has spent yr 2 rereading all the books she read in yr 1, as have several other kids in her class, achievement assemblies introduced on Friday afternoons when I'm at work and can't attend, very few clubs run and those that ran were subject to frequent cancellation as teachers worked on improving pupil tracking, my son's teacher has been out of the classroom so much improving things that his education is juggled between several support teachers each week and he has gone backwards, as his lovely teacher admitted, parents of teachers of this previously successful class are now in uproar and there are a pile of interminable parent / teacher meetings to sort things out.

Good luck, I'm moving my kids next year , not because of all this but because we are moving house, and can't wait to see the back of the school, it was great before ofsted decided a cohort largely consisting of summer born boys was under performing, from being relaxed and positive, the teachers are now nervous and obviously stressed.

The school has apparently received extra resources to help it improve, perhaps it will given time, but my dcs are there now and can't wait . But it wasn't actually broken prior to ofsted, now it is.

Interesting thoughts milk. Am sure yours isn't the only school ofsted has put in this position...

I'm curious about the Outstanding schools thing - I also thought that Outstanding schools were only inspected if there had been a complaint or massive drop in outcomes or whatever, but it seems I was wrong?

If any outstanding school can be inspected for quality control, and be seen to drop from outstanding to inadequate, why are Outstanding schools not monitored as a rule? Two of my four local schools are outstanding but I have concerns about one of them and technically it could not be independently assessed for years and years and years (if at all). How does this make sense?

There are two answers. One is that if Ofsted see the results of the school starting to tail off then they can come in. Also they do inspect a proportion of outstanding schools, so no schools is absolutely safe from having an inspection.
The other thing that needs to be considered is that what Ofsted are inspecting against now is very different from 2 to 3 years ago when many of the schools were considered outstanding.

This school was only formed in 2009. Apparently they had a really strong cohort that year with exceptional KS2 results. Subsequent cohorts have been more typical but have been compared to that exceptional year group and therefore the trend in results is by default downwards and erefore by default standards have slipped and by default the teaching must now be inadequate. Seems ridiculous.

Oh and for for one of those years there is no data at all as the HT refused to do the SATS!