Should I buy this house near a 'needs improvement' school..please help!!!!

[Lehman]

Hi,
I am considering making an offer on a house and I'm completely stumped by the whole school admission system. The house we are thinking of is a semi in tetbury glos. The nearest school doesn't rate well. But it appears we are in the catchment of several other schools. The nearest other school is 3.9 miles away.i have no idea if it's oversubscribed or not or how to find out. I love the house but I'm completely torn. I'd be pretty much happy with any of the other schools in the area but am I kidding myself that I might be able to avoid the nearest school?

do you have children yet?

Hi yes, youngest 3 1/2

That's an interesting point. Why do people care then about schools and catchments? I know people get very worked up about it.

I have had DDs at a RI school for 7 years.
It depends why it is RI, whether you care, and whether you have faith that the school will improve.

eg. The school was not (until recently) good at pushing top achievers along. I haven't been too bothered because my DDs aren't top achievers.
But its pastoral care has always been good, which is important to me.

The school now has good leadership and is improving across all areas.

The school I work at will be put into this category very soon.

It will be because we can't recruit a new head teacher (national shortages) and the governors don't have a solid plan to solve it.

Very little impact on the teaching and learning that goes on in the classroom

Because schools vary massively. Everyone wants different for their child. Some are up to 6 form entry - 3 is more common. Some people want small such as 1 form entry of 30 . Some people want faith. Some want a tiny village school, some want the increased facilities of big. Some want multicultural some do not. Some want playing fields some are not bothered. Some need wrap around care before or after. Some want walking distance. That's before you even consider teaching quality. The lucky people are those who are open minded and don't let school dictate the rest of their life... 3.9 miles seems a huge distance away ?!

Thanks, I went to a school which was consistently poor and eventually closed (and reopened eventually under new leadership). I know first hand about schools where the teachers hand out text books at the beginning of the lesson and collect them in at the end and do nothing in between. Of course everyone want different things from a school, I only have one requirement that it is successful at teaching.

Can you talk to local Mums about the schools. My daughter is at a school that has a poor ofsted rating but it is really lovely and has a friendly atmosphere. You can find ofsted reports online if you wanted to check what areas it is failing on.

According to google maps the nearest other school will take 9 minutes to drive. That's not an issue for me but obviously if that's too far to be offered a place then there is not much I can do about that.

Hi, not currently in that area so no mums to discuss. I've read the ofsted report and some sort of follow up letter too. Basically it's falling down on results and attendance. Some other issues too but those seem the main ones.

You could ask to visit the school in person.
School ratings can change a lot and quickly ime.

I recommend a visit to the school and hopefully you can meet the head teacher etc. I saw one RI school which was lovely and the head was happy to discuss the reasons why they got it and their action plan

Our council website has statistics about how far away those who got a place live. It might be worth having a look.

I wouldn't to be honest.

In my limited experience, I think schools can and do improve significantly, but there needs to be a high staff turnover to completely change a school from being not very good to being very good, or they need a completely different intake.

If the main problems are results and attendance, then the teaching is likely to be fine, but the intake could be a challenging one, and it might be that you don't want your child to go to a school where your children are surrounded by others who have low aspirations and low standards of behaviour.

If this is the school that other local people try to avoid, then there are likely to be lots of others who have older siblings and who live closer to the other schools than you, making a high chance that you won't get into the schools you want.

Schools very rarely stay in RI (or SM) for very long, Ofsted is a totally meaningless charade. In 18 months the school will be Good, I'd pretty much put money on it.

I would be very wary of buying a house based manly on a school.
You only have to read this section to find many parents who haven't got a place in a school they assumed they would.

Schools are important which is why people care. I've visited schools and notice a difference in the attitude of the head teachers which swayed my choice.

I wouldn't bank on the drive being 9 mins - school run traffic is horrific.

RI isn't failing, it's the old 'satisfactory'. Schools can not get away with remaining RI for long. What does the ofsted say about why they are RI?

As you will be applying next year, ie from September, call up all the schools you would like your child to go to or LEA,, and ask if he is likely to get in from where you live, but making sure that they know he will be normal add mission ie no siblings, no seen, not looked after etc etc.
At least then you will have a better idea. School allocation day has just passed so they will know.

Good luck with it.

Oh you say youngest son.... Will your other children be making in year applications? If so it will probably depend more on if they get a place

If you go to the Gloustershire council website they should still have the booklet from this year's admissions, showing last year's data for entry. They also have a document with next year's admission criteria for all the county's schools and a map programme which shows distance to schools to 1 decimal place, and lists them in distance order.

Your problem is going to be that the next nearest schools are all small village schools, some of which are very popular. Eg last year there were 23 1st choice applications for the 11 places at Rodmarton.

If you'd be happy with St Mary's as a 4th choice (you get 4 choices in Glos) then you could put 3 other schools above it.

Can you visit the school for more information? We have just moved to a new area and our catchment primary is the same and is inadequate - and according to my new neighbours is dire.

I popped into the school and the school secretary was a mine of useful info - the school is getting a new headteacher and governors , is being taken over by a successful academy group which will also change the secondary school it feeds into into a far better one too. She explained the problems the school had had and why.

So I've put DS down for nursery and we will go from there. I'm prepared to give it a try (and will be saving furiously for private as a back up just in case!)

Thanks all for your helpful comments. I telephoned the local authority and the nearest good school is not actually oversubscribed and same is true for other schools in the area so chances of me getting our first choice is good. The area is not very populated. We have decided against this house in any event as there were other issues.

I almost wish there were no ofsted ratings it feels a bit like hotels on trip advisor