DD1 starts reception next September and I am currently looking at local primaries and trying to decide where to apply. We are in a borough with catchment areas and plan to apply to our catchment community school as first choice but may not be close enough to be offered a place (it is oversubscribed from within the catchment area). The next community school to the north is oversubscribed from within its catchment so no hope of the that. The community school to the south did give places to children from outside the catchment area (though perhaps not quite so far away as us), this school is in special measures. Our closest school is a VA C of E school and last year offered places to children who did not get any of their preferences, this school is also in special measures. Most other nearby schools we would be unlikely to be offered a place at.
I plan to visit both of these schools in special measures but am trying to understand what this means, having had no experience of primary education since leaving it myself 25+ years ago. I understand that they are inspected every term following being placed in special measures and have read the section 8 reports on the OFSTED website (the community school seems to be addressing the issues, the C of E school is being heavily criticised in the reports still). I know that the government can force schools in special measures to become an academy and the community school did have a possible partner but this has fallen through. What happens if it isn't a community school though? Can they make the VA school become an academy? Can they force it to close without improvement? And I have no clue whether becoming an academy is good or bad anyway! So 
with everything.