How quickly can a school improve?

[Sazhoopz]

We're currently doing the tour of primary schools. One of the options is a school that up until 3 years ago was in special measures, it now has a brand new building & is part of a federation in which every other school has been rated outstanding.

My question is how long do changes & improvements take to come into effect? Has anyone experienced a school who has gone through this?

What is the current OFSTED rating? A school in special measures has everything thrown at it. It will have a different head and probably different staff.

It's last was good in 2013, the head is different & was doing a massive sales pitch on us!

If the school has been rated good then why are you worried. It sounds like they have got over their difficulties.

In my experience a change of head changes a school quickly. A lot depends on why it got into special measures. What are the results like?

I think it's just a feeling that I got, but my OH liked it. The results have improved since 2012 but are still amongst the lowest of the local schools.

Is good a typo? If it's good it's gone from special measures to good on three years which is really impressive.

I thought they had changed the grading to numbers anyway now?

To answer your question though a school will get out of special measures very quickly, money and staff will get thrown at it.

Money and staff do not get thrown at schools these days. Academy status does. You cannot get good staff if none are around. However, federating can bring advantages of expertise from within the group, especially senior leadership. You will just have to trust that the new leadership can maintain the momentum and keep progress good. Results are not the only measure of a good school.

My daughter's school has had staff and lots of money thrown at it. A lot depends on how much the LEA wants to keep the school. Dd school had not been academised (yet!)

Ours went from requires improvement to good with outstanding in a couple of categories in just under two years. They fought against academisation. Head resigned shortly after the bad Ofsted, there were two interim heads for a term sharing the leadership then someone new was appointed.

Even though a lot of the teaching staff are still the same it's just a much better school now.

Thanks all. Having now seen all the schools we have a chance to get in this one has slid down the list mainly because it's a 15 minute walk along a major road compared with 2 minutes round the corner!

My dcs school originally was in special measures and didn't have a head when dd started. It's now a good with outstanding features and tbh i can't fault it. It's a really good school and dd has done amazingly there.