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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Received copy of ofsted for ds school today, it's inadequate and has being placed under special measures....

26 replies

Pandorassox · 13/09/2013 16:24

Ds joined reception at this school 2 weeks ago. Today we received a letter from the headmaster and a copy of the ofsted the results were as follows:
Previous inspection : good - 2
This inspection: inadequate - 4
Achievement of pupils: inadequate - 4
Quality of teaching: inadequate - 4
Behavior and safety of pupils: requires improvement - 3
Leadership and management: inadequate - 4

Letter from headmaster stated how the school has being placed under special measures and will be under close inspection every term.

The only good thing was early years education was rated as good which is ok as ds is in reception but it's all down hill from year 1.

Will ofsted be providing another report as I wish to remove ds at the end of reception if the school has not improved considerably?

I'm really disappointed as the last ofsted report was rated good through out.

OP posts:

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ReallyTired · 13/09/2013 16:28

My daughter's school is in the same boat. We have no choice of school as all the other schools in thearea are full to bursting. I imaigne with such a damning report that the head teacher will be replaced and you will see improvements within a year.

However OFTSED reports are pretty meaningless. A lot of primaries are now in special measures becuase the level of what is deemed acceptable has been raised. In the past OFSTED were interesetsed in fluffy things like community relationships, but now they focus on progress.

fossil971 · 13/09/2013 16:29

This happened to a school near us - DH is a governor at our school and was discussing it with our head. She said actually when a school is under special measures they do get a lot of support, extra staff and funding and it can often make a real difference. I would certainly give them a chance this year and see how it goes. I expect the school will keep the parents updated but it will be pretty obvious if there are changes.

cathpip · 13/09/2013 16:34

I worked in a primary which was under special measures, the amount of support and extra staff etc was amazing, they do try and have them out of special measures by the end of the school year.

bundaberg · 13/09/2013 16:37

please try not to worry. our school has also just been placed in special measures.

ofsted have had a super crazy overhaul not long ago and a LOT of schools are getting this judgement. another near me only just scraped through with needing improvement rather than inadequate and has previously had only good and outstanding reports!!!

a friend of mine posted this on facebook earlier... interesting read

niminypiminy · 13/09/2013 17:04

If your school has been placed in special measures it is almost certain that it will be encouraged/made to convert to sponsored academy status as part of the improvement process, especially as the leadership and management has been graded 4.

As other people have said, this result doesn't necessarily mean that the school is a terrible one, because Ofsted have made their criteria much more stringent, and lots more schools are being judged inadequate as a result. Some cynical people (not me ) suspect this might have something to do with the government's drive to turn schools into academies.

There will be a huge amount of effort put into improving the school now, and the school should keep you informed about what is being done, and whether they are going to go down the academy route, and what that would mean for the school.

friday16 · 13/09/2013 17:17

" lots more schools are being judged inadequate as a result. "

Although, even so, not many. If you pull up "all Primary inspection reports published this week" on the Ofsted website and leaf through the first few dozen, all the places marked "Inadequate" have a long litany of Section 8 inspections and therefore have been under review for some time. Presumably in there somewhere schools are being placed into special measures de novo, but if it's all part of a dark conspiracy, it's not a very effective one.

Ofsted are supposedly concerned about nice suburban schools with low EAL and FSM in their intake that didn't actually do very much, but were able to look decent because of engaged parents who picked up the pieces. Up until recently good outcomes with poor added value was considered OK. The (allegedly Outstanding) school my kids went to has been caught up in that, going straight from "outstanding" to "requires improvement" and I can't help thinking "about time too". Potemkin villages spring to mind.

ClayDavis · 13/09/2013 17:30

A couple of months ago I think some one posted the the number of schools inspected so far this year and the gradings vs the number inspected over the same period 3 years ago. I seem to remember the numbers were very similar and didn't really support the idea that Oftsed were giving more schools inadequate/requires improvement because of tougher criteria.

DanFmDorking · 13/09/2013 18:07

I expect you are feeling annoyed/upset/angry about being put into 'special measures' but the following is true:-

The worst is over, the school is now getting better,
The County Education Dept know the problems and will be pouring extra money/time/resources into the school to take it out of special measures
The Staff and Governors know the problems and are sorting them out now.

The school will be getting regular Ofsted inspections (roughly 3 per year) to check progress.

I recommend keeping your child in the school.

You could volunteer to be a School Governor to help the school.

Remember:- Because of the extra money, time and effort, when the school comes out of ‘special measures’ it will arguably be the best school for miles around.

Try not to be disheartened - keep smiling.

niminypiminy · 13/09/2013 19:41

DanfmDorking: in the past these things may have happened. But now the DfE is clear that schools in special measures are expected to convert to academy status. The worst may be over- but it may not either.

DanFmDorking · 13/09/2013 19:51

niminy I wasn't aware of that, have you any references?

Retropear · 13/09/2013 20:06

And being a gov is impossible if there are no vacancies or you're not uber popular.You need to get voted in.

friday16 · 13/09/2013 20:08

And being a gov is impossible if there are no vacancies or you're not uber popular.You need to get voted in.

Most schools are crying out for governors. Very few parent governor elections are contested, and many have zero applications. It is common for PGs whose period has expired to be co-opted anyway. If you want to be a governor, it's unlikely you'll be turned down.

Retropear · 13/09/2013 20:10

Not at our school.

friday16 · 13/09/2013 20:30

Not at our school.

Lucky school. There will be few schools which both (a) has contested elections when vacancies arise for parent governors and (b) is at risk of special measures.

Hassled · 13/09/2013 20:35

Everything DanFM said is true - and remember the goalposts have moved in recent years, certainly I'd imagine since your school was last inspected. It's not as straightforward as a like-for-like comparison of the school then and the school now.

There is certainly a lot of anecdotal evidence that "failing" schools are receiving significant pressure to convert to academy status. I don't know what the DfE has actually said on the subject.

niminypiminy · 13/09/2013 20:39

See here. Although section 2 says that 'most primary schools choose to become a sponsored academy' in reality there is very little choice. A school in special measures will be visited by a DoE Education Adviser/Academy Broker and advised that they must consider a 'sponsored solution'. The decision is formally in the hands of the governing body; however, it is very difficult for a governing body to say no to academisation, especially if the leadership and management of the school has been judged inadequate, because this means they are judged to be not capable of driving school improvement.

niminypiminy · 13/09/2013 21:01

And further, the Academies Broker who visited the school where I am a governor said, quite categorically, that the expectation is that any school that is in special measures is expected to convert to a sponsored academy.

I'm afraid that DanfmDorking's optimism is misplaced. It certainly is in my experience and the school I'm a governor of wasn't even in special measures (it had 3 for leadership and management, which meant that it was judged as 'serious weakness'). The OP's school has a 4 for leadership and management that's really crucial.

Original poster

Pandorassox · 13/09/2013 21:01

Thanks for all the information, it has put my mind at rest a bit. Does anyone know if the headmaster may be replaced?

OP posts:

niminypiminy · 13/09/2013 21:04

If the school becomes an academy, it is quite possible that the sponsor will want to replace him or her, and the governing body will be dissolved and replaced with another one.

poshfrock · 14/09/2013 09:15

My daughter's school had already converted to an academy last year when it was put in special measures in April this year. The headmaster left without notice. Things have improved enormously since Easter and the Year 6 SATS were outstanding.

NoComet · 14/09/2013 09:37

How big is the school? The DDs primary went from good to satisfactory and back to good, purely on results, of 10-20 DCs.

It happens the Y6 that got satisfactory were DD1s and the results for returning to good were DD2's. same teacher, very different children. The whole of DD2's top table came from the sort of backgrounds that meant they were dead cert L5 from the day they walked into reception.

DD1's lot were lovely and bright, but not intrinsically confident. There were missed L5s from DCs who on a different day with a different paper would have got them.

And a total fluke L5 from my dyslexic DD1, without which the results would have looked even worse.

No way was either group big enough to draw any meaningful statistical conclusion, but Ofsted does

nennypops · 14/09/2013 09:43

It is much more difficult for schools to get good Ofsted results under the new regime, and often they fail not because practice is bad but because they don't have the right bits of paper in place. The fact that they are then virtually forced to become academies is not coincidental.

admission · 14/09/2013 17:43

nennypops, I would disagree with your conclusions about having the right bit of paper in place. In previous Ofsted regimes that may well have been the case, but now much more schools are finding themselves in a category because the quality of the teaching in the school is variable and therefore progress from one year to the next is too variable. That of course comes down to weakness in leadership and management because this should have been apparent to the SLT.
I do agree with you that the relentless purge to become an Academy is being forced on schools and actually in many instances hinders / slows down the rate of progress to improve the school.

racetothebottom · 14/09/2013 17:57

It is very unfair when there are schools out there touting 'outstanding' judgement who haven't' been inspected for 7-8 years!

DS's old school was last inspected in 2007 - since then they just send in data and Ofsted leave them alone. Yet, they really are a lazy and arrogant lot, resting on their laurels. Half the kids have private tutors for grammar school entrance by the time they're in Y4/5, giving a false picture in terms of results.

AnitaManeater · 14/09/2013 18:14

If the school is in special measures there will be restrictions on the number of parent governors. I'm a parent governor at a school which is in special measures and I have temporarily stood down as a maximum of two are required at present. I had the option to remain but the commitment required for this coming year was too big, especially now the school has converted to an academy.

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