School refuses a viewing visit

[jaabaar]

Hi

A faith school has refused to let me view their school.

I do understand that open days were arranged last year etc.
However this school has released further available spaces for the interest round and this school can be added as a new interest on the original list.

Can they refuse a viewing taking into consideration they are offering additional places and can be added as a new school on preference list?

The reason they gave me is that if they agreed they had parents here every day.

Thank you

Not acceptable. I'd ring LA and ask them to overrule.

Having taught in a 'good' school in a deprived area for several years I can assure you it absolutely isn't what every 'good' school does.

Shall a decision be based on front office staff?

Jaabaar,' they cannot have constantly parents coming around'; why on earth not? In the school where I work, we have prospective parents looking round whenever they wish to and current parents dropping in to talk to the HT or help in class frequently. Parents come to the celebration assembly every week and we sing happy birthday to them as well as to their children. Why ever not? a school is a community, comprising children, staff and parents. If any of the elements is missing, the education will be compromised. Don't even consider it!

Your school sounds lovely labelledame - shame that all schools are not like that.

jaabaar - the front office staff reflect their management usually and if not, how on earth does a parent get beyond the front office staff and actually visit the school. No parent would wish to place their child in a school that they have not visited surely?

If they won't let you view I simply wouldn't choose it. Of course you can constantly have parents coming around! Why not? All good schools do- they celebrate and share what they have.

Yes the more I think the more I am sure not to choose this school.
It is difficult to refuse as it means I will not be able to have religious education for my DD which is very important to me.
But then again not at the price of having DD in a very unwelcoming school.
Thank you all for your very valued opinions which have helped.

No parent could choose a school that they haven't visited on a normal school day and been able to see all classes and ask questions. Utter madness to think they could!

jaabaar - faith can be reinforced at home and church or equivalent. Go with a school that is humble enough to recognise the role of the parent in the pupil's education.

We had this when choosing a primary. I explained I was quite happy to go around in a group anytime in the next year - I wasn't asking for preferential treatment. They refused so we went elsewhere.

That would send alarm bells ringing for me I'm afraid. Maybe another school who don't have to arrange viewing dates to suit them would be the best option. This alone would put me off. I'm guessing you would have no input as a parent what so ever if your Dc was to attend this school.

I wouldn't entertain sending my children to a school which didn't welcome visitors. My school (where I teach) is very welcoming to prospective parents and we often have parents looking round, shown round either by the Head, the Deputy or a couple of the older children. I think it's vital that parents see that we are welcoming both to their children and to them.

"Our head insists on seeing every prospective parent before they're offered a place. He (and sometime they) knows he can't actually refuse a place if they refuse to meet him but he leads them to believe it's part of the admissions process."

He can't do this!!!! And anyway, Head Teachers are no longer in charge of admissions, the LA is. If what you're saying is correct, then it sounds as if he is displaying the very worst sort of snobbery, and picking parents who he thinks are "riffraff" and attempting to put them off from applying, whilst "brown-nosing" the perceived middle classes.
What a horrible man - I wouldn't touch his school with a barge-pole, and I am unashamedly middle class.

Marathon, there are plenty of failing schools with "good" parents and plenty of great schools in more challenging areas. And for the record, your use of speech marks makes your classification of dif types of parent any less ridiculous.

Do you work at this school? If so both you and the HT are modelling some shocking attitudes to the children. I'd hate my children to grow up such spouting ill-informed, offensive rubbish.

doesn't makes your classification of dif types of parent any less ridiculous.

Marathon - you're aware that Ofsted inspect the teaching not the students, right?

ofsted don't inspect the teaching particularly, they aren't even going to give ratings to lessons in future. they inspect learning-in the form of data and results. That is all Ofsted care about.

Enchanted - that's not true in my experience. They do classroom observations to assess teaching across the school

Well they do look at results, but they look at progress as well as attainment. Interestingly a school around here with the middle-class intake and the head who, while not quite as blatant as Marathon's, has a similar policy towards the 'less desirable children' have just been downgraded from 'Outstanding' to 'requires improvement'.

Whilst their top line results look favourable compared to the national average and very good in local league tables, the underlying data tells a different story. They are much lower than they should be given the intake of the school. The Ofsted dashboard was quite enlightening.

if the data is excellent-showing 100% progress in maths, reading and writing with more able pupils making better than expected progress, they aren't going to give two hoots if they see less than desirable teaching (even if it does mean they are doing not much besides maths and English).

likewise, if the data isn't good. Below floor standards making expected progress then OFSTEd really aren't interested in the outstanding lessons on the day. The fact is, the progress isn't good enough and learning ends to improve.

it isn't so much the teaching that is monitored on the day but the data scrutinised. Inspectors will see what they want to see based on pupil numbers making progress etc. So little of the final outcome is, nowadays, based on what they see over a couple of days. Raiseonline, FFT, SATs results etc mean everything under the current regime!

X posts with RAFA. That is what I meant re data. It is all about progress data!

Just don't choose it. We moved across the country and had no problem visiting schools - even ones with no places - the one we finally chose was so welcoming, they just had one space left (Y4) and couldn't have been nicer - it was a Catholic school (and we are not catholics) but DH and I had to visit separately (due to being 250 miles away) and they couldn't have been nicer, Head Teacher made sure he met us both times and showed us round the school.

This school's attitude tells you all you need to know.

Oh I agree that progress in last 3 years (as evidenced by the data they see, rather than the underlying explanatory story) makes for the basis of the majority of their judgement - I was merely commenting on the specifics of the classroom observations.

It'll be interesting to see how it affects applications. For the last decade at least, it's been the only school here that parents will literally beg, steal, borrow and buy ridiculously overpriced houses to get their children in. Hence it's unusually MC intake for this area. Having done a couple of longer term supply jobs there I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Many of the teachers and childrens/community workers I know who've had dealings with the school would say the same.