I visited the outstanding primary on my doorstep and was appalled.

[Trollsworth]

The atmosphere was cold and fearful. The head was a megalomaniac. The children parted for her silently, without any greeting or eye contact. She could tell me how, in a school of 350, she managed social problems and denied having them.

She berated ds2 for fidgeting on a chair.

Walking outside was like leaving a prison!

Go with your gut instinct. I've taught in many schools. The ones with a good name aren't always the best for the child. More investment in PR etc.

I regularly say on here (and in RL) that I wouldn't rely on an OFSTED rating to choose a school. Definitely go with your instincts with this one.

My son's head is lovely and stops anything she is doing if a child comes up to show her a piece of work they are proud of. No matter who she is talking to. I love that she always shows the children that they come first.

I took my 2 children out of an "outstanding" school (outstanding under both old and new frameworks). It was an extremely controlling place, not a lot of smiles or fun. It seriously did not suit either of my 2 children.
We now home educate, have loads of fun learning, loads of freedom, highly motivated and very HAPPY!

Definitely go with your gut, one place I saw was so cold it gave me the creeps, that and the swanky IT room, the pride of the school but had a layer of dust over all the keyboards

We went to visit a school last week for DS who transfers to secondary in 2015, we also have a reception starter at the same time. The school we visited is new, will be a through school and currently has reception and year 7.

The head took us through both sections of the school. A delightful boy in reception said "Mr X, why are you bringing those people in here?" The head knew the boy's name and happily explained why we were looking around.

We will definitely be applying for DS and I wish we could apply for DD2 as well, but the secondary has a longer day, and I can't expect 11 yo DS to be responsible for taking DD2 each day and DD1's school us in the opposite direction.

I just wish I could be in two places at the same time so DD2 could go to that school.

I moved my dc from an outstanding school. It turned out that they got outstanding for filling in paperwork, ticking many boxes and performing well on inspection day.
In reality it was shit (to put it mildly)

I choose my daughter's school because of the head teacher, he was/is a very compassionate man. The school was not academically brilliant but my dd was very happy there and learnt good values.

Gut instinct is vital IMO.

I dismissed 2 nearby 'good' schools because they didn't seem to be that interested in the children. I chose the other one that was welcoming and the head spoke to DS during the visit. We've been there for nearly 3 years now and I still love it. Great communication, results seem to be good, teachers are always available.

And the 2 schools that I turned down, I know several children that have left them and come to our school because of just the reasons I avoided them, bad communication, not so welcoming.

Forget the ofsted report, it's not worth the paper it's written on if you don't have the right gut feeling about it. We have two schools locally, one is 'requires improvement' and one is 'outstanding'. Having looked at them both there is no way on this earth I would select the outstanding one as the children are treated as results machines.

I think ofsted was always unreliable, but these days it is a nonsense. It is a function of the inspectors rather than the schools. Clearly ofsted agree with this too, hence bringing all the staff in house when inspections have previously been run by contractors. Do trust your gut instinct. It really is more important that your child is in a happy school with a rounded curriculum than a online for a sack full of 5s and 6s in ks2 SATS.

I visited 6 and was amazed at the differences. Our outstanding school is amazing and the kids have an absolute ball. Tons of creative stuff, massive focus on sports and outdoors etc . The outstanding faith school 0.25 miles away on the same road made my blood run cold. Formal, unwelcoming and uninspiring. One RI school was truely lovely with new head. All the private schools near us are exam factories.
Look at loads

They will be the same staff working for Ofsted as worked for the contractors! Inspectors don't grow on trees and the training was done by Ofsted anyway, so nothing will change. Inspections are guidance. They are something to consider, along with lots of other things. The difference between outstanding and good can be pretty marginal anyway. The appointment of a poor Head can change everything very quickly too. Parents should choose a school where they think their child will thrive and it may not be the outstanding one.

You absolutely have to visit schools and go with your gut. OFSTED inspections might flag up some causes for concern, but a good report doesn't mean no concerns. It simply means that the concerns are not part of the scope of the inspection.

One of my friends was a member of an inspection team for years. She quietly admitted that although a local superselective was classed by the criteria as "Outstanding", she wouldn't have trusted them with her dog, let alone her DD.

My DD's school has just been inspected and classed as "Outstanding", but we all know it falls short of satisfactory; parents are running around behind the scenes plugging basic gaps for their children.

There's an 'outstanding' school near me like that. The children are like little robots.

Go with your instincts OP. I used to work in an 'outstanding' school with an 'outstanding' HT. She was an psychopath, truly, not remotely interested in kids. Poor children were barely allowed to move or breathe in case they made a noise or mess. I left.

Ofsted reports are useful for many things. For example, one school I visited had been criticised in 3 Ofsted reports in a row for not challenging more able children and the HT wasn't able to tell me what they did to challenge them when I went round either.

But, visiting the schools is the most important thing. I saw 5 schools, 3 of which I had zero chance of getting a place at in the first round (nearest non-faith schools but still too far away). 4/5 were Outstanding, one was N/I.

I ended up putting the NI school as my 3rd choice, the Outstanding school I really wanted (but didn't have a hope at getting) as my first, and the Outstanding that I didn't really like but would actually get a place at as my second.

Fortunately I got a place at my first choice via the waiting list 3 weeks into the Autumn term.

The difference between the 4 Outstanding schools was incredible.

One had an hour long tour with the HT - she knew all the children by name, they would come up and talk to her and seemed happy and enthusiastic, she showed us examples of work in different classes - handing round exercise books for us to see, not carefully selected showpieces - and seemed incredibly proud of the school and its impressive achievements. She even managed to look as if she'd actually like to teach my DD despite her best attempts to emulate every teacher's worst nightmare.

One gave us a perfunctory 20 minutes, we spent half of that being talked at in a hall, didn't see any of the classrooms, work, teachers or even children other than in a fast-paced trot round the corridors, and the HT struggled to answer some of the questions. None of the parents on the tour looked enthralled as we left. Prospective pupils were not invited.

The N/I could explain their reasons for the rating and what they were doing to improve (they're now rated Good), results weren't as impressive as the first school, but the children looked happy and as if they were enjoying themselves and the EYFS teachers were lovely.

The other two were very nice but not in the league of the first.

So, make visiting schools an absolute priority. A friend of mine who is a teacher told me to be suspicious of any school that was reluctant to allow visits. Many schools will have set open days, but 2 of the ones I saw were also happy to do an individual tour for parents who couldn't manage to attend the official ones.