Excellent SATs results at undesirable school

[FurtherSupport]

I work at the undesirable school. Traditionally satisfactory, although we did scrape a good last time, it could have gone either way. We have high FSM, high SEN and are at the rough end of town. This is not the kind of school parents move house for IYSWIM.

In the town there are various "OK" schools and one very sought after one. That's in the posh enclave, surprise, surprise. Also rated good.

Anyway, this year, our Yr 6 SATs results are better than theirs! How many parents from the posh part of town do you reckon will apply here next year? Or does having to go to school with kids from the council estate, still make the school undesirable, regardless of how well it achieves?

You have to visit a school and look beyond sat results. The best school in a town is not necessarily the one that is top of the league tables. Ofsted reports are of some use, but nothing is a substitute for seeing a school with your own eyes and talking to parents who actually send their children there rather than rumours.

Exactly. And as, Brecon says, avoid making wild generalisations.

Oh dear really tired it sounds like new HT is sucking the fun out. Our school is the opposite - they are always doing something off the walk - gets amazing results.
Snoberry is massive round us. One school can not shake its reputation as being rubbish despite solid results from challenging intake and very recent Good Rating

Interesting debate. We have recently chosen (due to start in Sept) a school which has consistently performed v. V well in SATS in the last five years after a grim period in special measures. A new Exec Head and a well respected federation took over and it's now in the top 1% of schools despite having v high levels of FSM and ESOL children. It offers an extraordinary curriculum, quality teachers and music provision to rival private schools. Many middle class parents don't know it exists or know of it's previous reputation. Everyone who saw it said it was the 'best school' but we were the only one who chose it. One family said they had discussed it for two months - plumping for the coasting school in the end with a heavy heart- because it was a 'known option'

DD's school gets quite a bit better than average results nationally but not particularly stellar for the schools around here (v leafy naice suburb of London). However it has higher than average FSM and higher than average SEN, both nationally and locally. There were a number of reasons why I chose it (now has good ofsted but at the time it was satisfactory and every other potential school was either outstanding or good).

1. no uniform (since changed unfortunately, but at least it's a simple uniform and there is absolutely no picking up on children wearing the wrong coloured socks or similar tiny issues).

2. tiny classes in Reception, moving to average size classes in Y1 and onwards - children were in a class of about twenty rather than thirty and my DD was shy and quiet and I thought she would be better off in a small group to begin with. It was great for her - she was in a class of 18 with a full time TA as well as a teacher and she got loads of really personal attention which really transformed her. This has sadly also changed with the pressure on places but I think it was a great way to begin school.

3. they sometimes just go 'ah, it's a lovely day, let's take them all to the park for a couple of hours/do something fun'.

Actually, the third one turned out to be the most important - that attitude really contributes to the sense of community (I would call it a family, really) and the strong relationships between children and teachers. It's a wonderfully happy and nurturing place and I really love it that they have the wit to see that actually sometimes children just need time to be children together and they don't always have to be learning a specific thing.

Other pluses were the really big emphasis on arts across the curriculum, the patent kindness of everyone I spoke to at the school (parents and teachers), the clear desire to make childhood a happy time at school even for those who maybe weren't having such a great time in the rest of their lives and the obvious pride the children took and take in their school.

A few years back a group of children were showing parents round the school (this also clearly a positive that they rely on their children to be the best ambassadors for the school - all other schools locally do a headteacher type tour). The parents saw a little boy sitting outside a classroom and one asked the children leading the tour if the boy had been naughty. The child answered 'NO! We don't have naughty children here, we just have children who might need some extra love and attention'. THAT is the kind of person I want my child to grow up to be.

Anyway, it's not popular locally with today's test-centred culture and desire to make them all learn everything immediately, but my child is excelling academically in any case and part of that is down to how cared for she feels. She's not an easy child but her school has taken her quirks and made them into positives and let her do everything she can dream of.