Primary selection 2017

[Unicorn1981]

Hi my dd is due to start primary next year. We live in a funny area where we don't seem to be in catchment for anything. The closest school has had an 'inadequate' ofsted and a couple of others require improvement. I'm not too worried about them but already I can't stop worrying about this inadequate one. We moved to this area (west miss) from London in July and although we took schools into account we had a bit of trouble finding a house with living so far away so moved to this one. I am going to see this school later but I've seen the outside which looks not great and there's various articles in the news where they have been excluding kids who have sn and are seen as disruptive and in other cases for nothing at all. The headteacher is apparently on sick leave and the teachers seem to have given up. DP wants to move in January to another area but as we have to have our application in by mid January this seems a bit tight. Has anyone been in the situation where their child has been sent to a school like this and it's turned out OK? I don't know how I'm going to be able to visit this school without saying something about the news reports.

Go and visit the school. Do not take the outside appearance of the building (lack of money) and newspaper reports (likely to be sensationalist) into consideration. Do ask about the newspaper report story if it is bothering you - you will get the school's side of the story which may be very different!

Do not base your school choice on hearsay.

Thanks golfbuggy. I'll update later!

It was ok actually. New head who seems to have experience with revamping schools and new head of board of governors. I was the only person there though! Kids seemed happy and said the school had got better. It's not first on my list. I don't think it will even be on my list but I won't be having nightmares about it either! Thanks

It would be sensible to include it on your list some where but maybe not first preference

I would recommend that you put this school on your list as your final choice.
There is a chance that it could be reinspected before September and no longer be inadequate by the time your dc is ready to start school whereas others may go the other way... OFSTED inspections aren't always fully up to date. There's a school near us where the report writes about the outstanding leadership offered by the Head but this Head left 2 years ago.
dd's school was placed in special measures when she was in Y1. By the time it was reinspected approx 18 months later, it was rated "good" and by the time she left was "good with outstanding features" so it can happen.