Struggling to choose primary school

[mint123]

Hi all,

I just can't make up my mind which school to go for. We moved not to long ago and there is a school just next to our house. We've got a phone call and my daughter would be able to start next week. This school is a large school with not a great ofsted report,it requires improvement.
The other school which is also a large school is 10-15 min drive and it's a good school. My older daughter went there from nursery and just started secondary school. Children achieve above the national average at the end of year 6.
Is there really a big difference between a school that is require improvement and a good school?

I'd go for the easy life ... lovely going to school next door. I did with mine, compromising on quality of education (turning down scholarship to Habs) and improving on quality of life. Never looked back ...

Well, our local school 'required improvement' when we put it as our first choice. By the time DD started there a few weeks ago, it was outstanding and is considered the best primary school in the town.

If you like the feel of the school and facilities otherwise, then I'd go for it. Ofsted is only one of many factors we considered and certainly not the most important one

I'd go next door personally. Much better for walking to school, local friends etc Round us Ofsted reports go up and down like yo yos

Depends on the feel of the school, what the attitude of the staff are like etc - if it requires improvement it might get more focus and attention. Have you visited? Compare it to the feel of the further school, you must know that one pretty well if your other DD went to it.

I will study the ofsted report in more detail to see what the school needs to improve and why the other one s a good school. The last school my dc went to s a good school but in reality it relys on a lot of parents home support.

Like others have said, if it were me I would visit to see how the school seemed and investigate why the ofsted is not great. An extra 20-30mins travel to school plus that on socialising time is a lot, so the other school would have to be really good to make it worth the travel. If you spent 10-15 mins a day on supporting learning at home instead of travel (if you needed to boost things up) might get you the same results. Have you looked at the DfE performance tables to see how the school does for high, middle and low attainers. As low big as all make progress you should be ok. Compare with the other school as if they simply have a high proportion of high attainers then it's results are more about intake than teaching - unless it has an average intake that gets above average results which then might make it worth the travel - if you would get a place..... Sounds difficult! Good luck

As low big as all make progress you should be ok ???

Sorry, autocorrect.

If low, medium and high levels all make progress you should be ok

Thank you all for answering. :)
We've visited the school it looks fine. The teachers were friendly and honest. The problem with the school is they have a big number of student with behavior issues and learning difficulties,so according to one of the teacher they don't have enough time for all the children to praise them and give them the attention they need. It's basically what the ofsted inspector said.

The ofsted rating itself isn't enough to judge on. You need to look at when the judgement was made, what categories of activity were judged lacking and what is being done about it. Even outstanding schools need to be looked at forensically to check whether you agree that the changes made to achieve that are things you agree with.

Compare:

School A - requires improvement. Two major failings were that the school doesn't do enough to stretch more able pupils and that school administration procedures to deal with absences weren't up to scratch. I doubt parents care much about the latter but a poor score there brings the whole score down. And as for the former - with a new head teacher and also some additional investment in place, this could be an excellent place for a more able child to go as you know the school will be focusing on showing how much extra is being done now compared to last inspection.

School B - outstanding. Was previously 'good' but pupils across the board were not achieving the improvement in literacy and numeracy thought to be expected. So the school cancels all legally optional activities (e.g. Forest School) in order to dedicate additional time to this. The school becomes more soulless and boring but it achieves it's outstanding rating.