would you move your DC from an ofsted rated 'good' school to one rated 'needs improvement' because it was closer to where you lived?

[driedapricots]

that's it really… ofsted report has just come out on my DD current school and the one i'm thinking of transferring her to and starting my DS at - which is very close to our new home. the one closest to us has faired worse than her current one by ofsted standards, even though when i went to look around it i was personally very impressed… what would you do, follow your heart and personal opinion, or oftsed?!

I would read the ofsteds and see whether their negative points are ones I care about.
(eg I don't mind whether our school stretches high attainers because my DD is not a high attainer)
If I did care I would decide whether this could be a show stopper, or just a warning for me to keep an eye and do more at home if needed.
(eg if science teaching was poor I might decide to just ensure we did science stuff at home)
If it would be a show stopper I would ask the school what they will be doing to address the points.

I really like my DD's school its pastoral care is fantastic and the children in DD's class are all lovely. It is also great to walk to school, it adds to quality of life. But there is no getting away from the fact that it has satisfactory/requires improvement for 6 years, and that is shown by the not great writing and spelling across the school. Luckily we have (another) new head, and this one actually seems to be finally improving things.

So in summary, I follow both heart and ofsted. A good head teacher can address issues quite quickly if they've a mind to.

I wouldn't move her. But if you decide to look more closely at the reports I'd look at the grade for teaching and the grade for leadership and management.

Generally speaking when a school requires improvement you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be that the children make insufficient progress, that too much teaching is rated as poor and satisfactory, that teachers do not plan lessons based on attainment, that leadership is not good enough and that there are underlying problems such as teacher vacancies, poor governorship, and the inability to recognise the problems or put them right. If you can live with these sorts of problems, then go to your local school. You will be hard pushed to see any of this on a visit because you will just see the everyday life of the school without drilling down into its problems. Very few schools ever fail an Ofsted because of poor pastoral care and children are generally happy whether a school is outstanding or failing. Often parents have no idea a school has problems either.

I would stay put. What about friendships? Do your children want to move? If you live in a rural area, no-one much walks to school. It is not the most important thing about school life.

When was your dc's current school graded 'good'? I ask because the Ofsted framework has been changed several times over the past few years, so it's not possible to make comparisons between reports issued at different times.

I would go back to the nearer school and speak with the head about the Ofsted report and their action plan. If her/his response is 'yes, we're taking it on board and doing x,y,z' them go for it. If it is 'we're appealing because lots of our children are SEN/EAL/FSM and we can't expect them to make the same progress' or any such excuses I'd stay put.

both schools were examined in the same week, their respective reports have just been released. it's worrying because previously the one closer to me was graded 'good' so despite a new head teacher who is 2 years in post now (who much impressed me at the viewing, and indeed in his written response to the ofsted report) the school has been down-graded. The head talks a good talk & says he's committed to improving but he's failed from the start hasn't he? my dd is settled in her current school and doing well PLUS there is a waiting list for the one closer to our home anyway (which i've been told we'll be top of as we are SO close!) In theory I could get my son in there next year and have to commute between 2 hellish school runs every day until a place comes up - if it ever does….Having slept on it I guess it's a bit of a no brainer to keep her in the school that is judged to be better, that she's happy at and is doing well at & to put my son down for there too under the sibling rule…but i can't help but feel we are out of the loop a bit here where we live in our local community as the current school is in effect '2 villages away' - we're not rural by any means and lots of people drive to the school, that's not the problem, it's the network of families around us here that we're not going to have. but guess this is small change compared to getting the best education for the DC…thanks for your thoughts, and particularly NorthBucksMum as what you say makes sense.

We did. we moved house and area and the dds changed from an Outstanding to a Good primary, then we moved again 6 months later and the commute to the 2nd school was horrible so we moved them to the local "satisfactory" (but had narrowly escaped special measures) primary. They loved it. And now, a few years on, the satisfactory/nearly failing school is Outstanding. Schools can change really quickly and Ofsted is a lot about box ticking. Our final primary was very cosy and friendly and the dc loved it but it wasn't good at ticking boxes, it was used to being a small friendly school. It got better at box ticking over the years, that's the main difference between when it was satisfactory and now it's outstanding.

dcs were happy and thriving in all 3 schools, but they liked the last one best.

I follow my heart.

I would choose the best education for my child, regardless of distance.

We moved our daughter from an ofsted outstanding school to one rated needs improvement for various reasons. She is now thriving and has come on in leaps and bounds since we moved her where before she was quiet and wouldn't participate. Ofsted doesnt always tell you everything. The head from her new school met us and talked through all our concerns. We went with what seemed right for our daughter and it was absolutely the right thing. The new school values the whole child and is hugely hot on emotional literacy and as a result is a happy healthy place whereas the previous one was very focused on levels and paper results. I think you have to decide on what's important to you and what environment will suit your children best.

I'd take the text of the OFSTED reports as one part of the decision (not the grade as a stand alone thing) , but I'd count the being close to the school as a very important part of the decision - especially as you'll be doing it for another 7 years - and that would carry a LOT of weight for me.