DC's school just got 'requires improvement'

[cheapandcheerful]

Urgh.

We have dd1 in Reception and dd2 in nursery at the same school. It had 'good' at the last inspection and just had 'requires improvement'.

I have lots of faith in the school; it's a lovely caring place, good ethos, very child-centric etc. but I can't shake the niggle that unless the quality of teaching is up to scratch, we're selling our dc short.

Please encourage me!

Sorry pressed button too soon!

At the next inspection we had a Good and recently had another Good with a outstanding features.

Dd is now in Y6. It's always been the same school. It didn't change overnight because of Ofsted. I'm glad we stuck with it. Things change quickly. My friends Dcs school was put into special measures and within 12 months it had turned around to a Good.

I have friends at Outstanding grades schools who say they wouldn't recommend it to a friend for various reasons. Ofsted really is just one snapshot.

No. Ofsted is no longer a snapshot. They are looking at quality of teaching "over time" and progress of the children "over time" . The school will have made its own judgement on how good it is and Ofsted require that this must be backed up by evidence - gathered and recorded by the school - over time! So, when ofsted do visit, they will want hard evidence to support the data. They will also want to know what a school is doing to ensure all children make good or better progress.

Therefore books will be scrutinised, teacher assessment of work will be checked for accuracy, some teaching may be observed and the children will be spoken to but most of all the inspectors will check the school's own data on progress and attainment. It is far from a "snapshot" these days. It is hard, consistent work! If a school does not know what it is doing, it will be RI or worse.

This may be true Milly, though our school was downgraded on health and safety/leadership rather than teaching.

Either way, it's not particularly helpful to insist that a Requires Improvement/Special Measures school is genuinely awful because most people can't/won't move their children. I feel a loyalty to my children's school, the staff and my children's friends. We are going to stick it out because a) this loyalty and b) you've no guarantees that wherever you move your children will stay good. My children's school has had a unique set of circumstances which meant that the change has been very rapid and unforeseeable. I have a friend who moved her child from a ofsted RI school to an ofsted good school, whereupon the second school was downgraded to special measures.

Our local honeypot outstanding school last had a full inspection 9 years ago. I don't think it has a single member of staff from that time left (not the head, deputy etc). In a way, there's an advantage to knowing where your kid's school's faults actually lie.

Ofsted should be taken with a pinch of salt

Some HT's are very good at box ticking and playing the Ofsted game, some aren't

Trust your own judgment

MOve your child. I left my eldest son in a failing school because I didn't want to disrupt him, and I deeply regret it now that he is at secondarty
school - there are basic skills that the other kids have that he does not.

Requires improvement isn't 'failing', it's requires improvement. And the chances are that those areas that are marked as needing improvement will be targetted.

Ofsted may not be a "snapshot" in that it considers data over a period of time, but it IS a snapshot in that a school's rating is based on the current views of Ofsted on "what makes a good school" at the time of that visit - and that seems to be changing all the time - ask any teacher about "moving the goal posts"!

Eg my DC's school got changed from Outstanding to Good - I believe it's a better school now than it was then, but being measured on different metrics.

I have been trying to say that Ofsted has changed how they inspect schools. Of course the report is a certain date, but the information available to them, and to parents, is taken over a much longer period. Good outcomes and sliding into RI can be spotted. However, very many parents have no basis for an accurate "gut reaction" because they do not see or understand enough schools. Why would they?

If anyone truly thinks Ofsted is just "box ticking" I would like to invite you to be a school governor so you really get to know the huge amount of effort, expertise and professionalism that goes into teaching children and ensuring they make good progress. The amount of data about the school and progress we receive is of the "no stone unturned" variety. If boys' writing is not going so well, for example, the school plans how to improve it and continually checks the outcomes of the interventions to see if they are working. Poor leadership would not do this effectively. Also, if leadership is poor, it is almost inevitable that the school will require improvement or no longer be outstanding. Do you think poor leadership in our banks led to stunning outcomes for the customers? Same applies to schools. Good leaders would be aware of H and S issues too!

My DC's school got RI 4 years ago, it took nearly 3 years for it to get back to normal. The main problem was staff turn over. The old head left ( I thought he was capable, OFSTED didn't agree) and there was an acting head for 18 months. Loads of teachers left and the replacements were not so good , with a few exceptions. The school now has a new able head who is doing some excellent recruiting. But my poor DD had 2 years with supply teachers and a couple of teachers who only stayed for a term, it was unsettling and she made very little progress. The main other problem was nearly all the clubs and fun activities stopped , as the staff running them stopped and the scho is only just starting to be able to offer them again, 4 years on. While the new head is undoubtedly able , the school is Cof E and had become much much more religious under the new head, to the extent it makes me, an atheist, uncomfortable. The results last year showed a sudden decline, because the children's education was disrupted. All in all it was difficult, though DD had an excellent teacher last year a d does again this year. But she is still playing catch up.

I think what you describe is very sad, MROA, especially as RI is not the worst category. I guess the Governors and the Diocesan Education Dept had negotiations with the Head which led to him moving on - rightly or wrongly. It would depend upon whether they felt he could move the school forward or not. Some C of E Controlled Schools opt to become Aided C of E Schools thereby changing their character. A push from the Diocesan Education Officers may also account for a more C of E character and the Head is happy to do it. I would not be that keen either and we had the same problem when a new Vicar turned up in our village with clear ideas about a Church education. Ours was a Controlled school and he started changing things even though he sent his own child to another school. Few Governors stand up to the Church!

millymollymama I didn't say ofsted don't visit, but I believe they have their minds made up before they set foot in the door. They then look for twist and manipulate evidence to back up the grade they want to give.

The data dashboard is heavily reliant on making expected progress in maths and English. What if your child loves cooking or drama or PE or DT? Data and OFSTED want academic students and academic schools making good progress in academic subjects. The government also want this, so the children in schools today will do well if maths and English are their favourite subjects but if your child loves sport, or art, or performing arts and goes to a school that does really well in that, it won't matter.

Ofsted care about the core subjects, their inspections are not conducted to see if teaching is good, it's to back up their findings about maths and English progress.

I agree that because Ofsted visits are now so short they have made lots of judgements before they even arrive. It is then up to the school to provide evidence to either support or challenge those judgements. Inspectors spend very little time actually observing teaching in the classroom so it can come down to books. It is possible for books to lie.

Correct mrz the judgment is made before they step in the door.

Also, maintained schools have local authority advisers who are all over them ensuring that progress is recorded efficiently and effectively and is fit for purpose.

We are a local authority school and we never ever see advisors. Over half of schools are now academies and LA advisors are very few and far between. Soon there will be none.

If you LA does not have a Trust or their own officers who are doing School Improvment then I think you are poorly served. Where I live, the Learning Trust "inspect" all schools, without parents knowing, and give feedback to the Head and Governors. This then triggers a Green, Amber or Red rating. Red being of immediate concern that a school is Inadequate or RI. Amber is some cause for concern. The development plan is then drawn up by the school on the basis of the findings and advice and further targeted "inspections" then take place according to the rating. Green schools get fewer visits than Amber or Red schools, for example. I am amazed other LA's do not have a similar system. The idea is clearly to avoid schools being RI or Inadequate. Schools buy this service. It is not free. Perhaps your school needs to review what it purchases from the LA, Iguana? Are all your services purchased directly from the LA, or do they have a Learning Trust? The service here is invaluable, and the "inspections" are far from a pushover, and it allows the SLT to have advice and encouragement in the areas that need to improve. With the devolved budgets to schools, the money is in our budget to buy this service but we do get a choice regarding level of service. We would be mad not to take advantage of this. We also have an Improvement Officer from the LA who works closely with the Head the strategies we should use to improve.

Ofsted are not really interested in cookery, DT, drama or PE. Obviously, for children to be able to do well at secondary school, they need to have the best standard of literacy and maths they can possibly get. This is what Ofsted are looking at because these subject impinge so greatly on success and access to the curriculum at secondary school. Whilst other subjects and activities do make up the ethos of a school, schools cannot champion children who are good at PE as being a mitigating reason for not getting good or expected progress in literacy and maths. I would expect a school to do everything you say and make sure they teach literacy and numeracy well too. Are you really saying children who enjoy practical subjects more cannot learn literacy and maths? Hopefully not.

The exact judgement is not made before they arrive. The data gives them a steer. It is up to the school to prove they understand where they need to improve, what they have done about it and what success they have had. Also, schools do change over time so Ofsted can see when a first class SLT is really turning a school around by robust assessment and great teaching even if the results have yet to be improved dramatically. It is up to the school to prove they are changing how they work and not just wringing their hands in despair.

Maybe it just means the school is concentrating on educating the children instead of jumping through Ofsted's bloody hoops. I've taught in quite a few schools. The one rated outstanding by Ofsted was the worst. It was a data-driven factory full of stressed-out, unhappy people. People were desperate to get their kids into it because of its false reputation for excellence.

My son's school is in RI (which is as many have said the old satisfactory category so it's not exactly awful, nor is it failing).

The reasons are partly management but mainly a high turn over of staff in a single year due to retirement and headhunting which led to a large number of NQTs being recruited (as there was no-one else applying due to the recruitment crisis).

However after the RI, the Council have upped there help, luckily the least able teacher decided teaching wasn't for her and has been replaced by a more able teacher and the new dep head has come into her stride and with the head, is getting things back on track and in fact many things, mainly proceedural, have improved in school which I was already happy with.

I would ignore the doomsayers.

The structure of Learning Trusts varies greatly across the country from private companies contracted to provide the services previously covered by the LEA to groups of schools or single large schools providing the services.
Many have been criticised by Ofsted for their "mocksted" inspections.

Ours is being disbanded in April, schools have to develop peer-to-peer-mentoring instead!

Hi CheapandCheerful, I don't know if you've forgotten you started this thread but if you are still around I just wanted to say how much your OP resonated with me.

My DC's school is in exactly the same position - head left in July, deputy head is in interim position as 9 months of recruitment have not turned up a new head. It is small, caring, child-centered but doesn't get great results, partly as it has a more challenging intake than some of other schools around; but maybe partly to do with teaching and expectations.

Its just has an Ofsted and gone from good to RI. From conversations others have had with acting head and comments in report this is a lot down to the tracking systems. There is something telling in one of MMMs posts: "Schools cannot present "progress" in any other way than the required way." At least part of the reason for our downgrading is that deputy head really didn't get what Ofsted were after whereas a more experienced head would have been able to present what is there in the way they want to see it.

But... the guilt, the helplessness. My DC are Y1 and Y3. Four years ago I made the choice to send them to this school over an 'outstanding' one we are in catchment for. And I am continually haunted by the possibility I've done the wrong thing. I torture myself by looking at dashboards regularly - outstanding school has got better and better results and ours have got worse - but DC are really happy, DD has some tricky SN and school are brilliant for her confidence, and I have lots of 'anecdata' saying it really is a great school.

It's the bloody parental choice thing - if DC were just sent to this school I'd just get on with it, support school where I could and supplement at home where needed. But because this was a choice and I turned down the other option there is always the possibility its my fault, I've failed my DC.

AArgh you asked for encouraging - its not really is it? But very happy to hold your hand and scream together.

YES, you should be worried if the next interim report will highlight that no progress was made.

Hi screamingeels - I only just saw your reply. And thanks everyone else too for your encouragements.

I had actually forgotten that I'd started this thread. As with many things, I panicked about it for a week and since then have just brushed the issue aside and got on with life :)

Goodness knows what's going on behind the scenes at school though. I suppose they must be doing something too address the things in the report but I suppose we won't know until ofsted next come will we?

How long do ofsted give a school that requires improvement before they visit again?

Actually, yes you should know!!!! They must have produced a School Development Plan to address the issues raised by the inspection. Normally a short version of this is given to parents. If you have not received anything, ask for it! It is not confidential. Take a look at the minutes of the Governing Body and the Teaching and Learning Committee so you can see what they are talking about. They are not confidential either. Ask the parent governors what is being done. I always find it surprising that schools do not engage with parents at times like this. Some schools get parents in to discuss any issues that are being worked on and want to know how the parents see the school. This would lead me to think the leadership were still a bit rubbish!

Ofsted can take quite a while before they visit again because Inadequate schools get priority. If you want to know what the school's priorities are, get asking for information if they do not give it to you!