Ofsted requires improvement

[emeraldcity2000]

Having a panic!
DD is in year 1. Her school has just had an ofsted rating of requires improvement - across the board. She's my eldest so no experience of what to look out for but we were reasonably happy with the school - she's happy going each day, has lots of friends and is doing well - achieving greater depth in all subjects.
The wrap around care and extra curricular stuff isn't great but we do a lot of stuff with her outside of school so didn't over worry about that.
Dh thinks we shouldn't panic. Give the school a year or so and see if we can see improvement.
So as not to drip feed - We'd always thought she would move to private in y5 but I'm worried she won't make the progress she should and won't get a place.... I think we should plan to move in y3 instead which means looking and applying from September.
We're in the process of doing up a house (which is taking longer and costing more than expected) so moving now isn't really an option and an extra couple of years of no fees would really help.
We also have ds at nursery, has 2 more years there.
Any experience?

Well, the first thing is to read the report and see why it is RI.

It may be due to issues you don't care about (e.g. SEN support). On the other hand it may be because they don't stretch high achievers enough which might worry you more.

Then think about the experience your individual child is having. Are they learning well and interested? Have you heard good things about next year's teacher?

Do you have confidence in the leadership?

And go from there.

Thanks @TeenDivided . We'll go through it in detail tonight. Dd is very happy and well balanced. I think she's developing well (but like every parent, I also think she's very bright and I want her to be able to fulfil her potential) ...

I do like the teachers but I don't love the leadership tbh. That's where my biggest worry lies. The head espouses great values but I don't get the feeling he's a strong or experienced people leader. And a dreadful communicator! It's also part of a federation which doesn't seem to add much value!

Were you happy with the school before the report came out? Is you’re child achieving as you’d hope?

A report is a snapshot and a school can be downgraded for lots of things: some of these reasons will be important to you and others not so much.

Our school was downgraded for keeping insufficient records of academic progress throughout the year, with the reason being pupils struggling might not be identified promptly. In my mind, the teacher should (and typically do) spot this without needing constant test scores so isn’t hugely an issue. I can, however, see that it is administratively important in our record keeping and “blame” culture, and I’d bet that the school are doing more now. A “bad” Ofsted can kick start the school into doing better too!

Definitely no need for a knee jerk reaction here, take your time.

You say your child is achieving GD across the board and yet you think she may be underachieving. There is no GD+ OFSTED means very little if you’re happy with your daughter’s achievements. This knee jerking by parents after an RI judgement doesn’t make much sense to me. Or do you have an outstanding school with free spaces on the doorstep? (One that probably hasn’t been inspected for years btw) If she’s settled and happy and achieving let her be.

When my school got an RI a few years back, the headteacher resigned (was pushed out) and a super head came in, an executive head. She was a bit marmite but she pushed the school in the right direction to get a 'good' on the next Ofsted.

I wouldn't panic, far more important is that your daughter is happy.

Thanks all. I'm much calmer this morning! She is happy and achieving well. And it should only get better from here. The issues were things we were already noticing (poor behaviour, limited enrichment, poor curriculum planning - mostly in ks2 - and missing parts of the curriculum totally 😱). Some of these we can mitigate at home and some we can afford some time to see how it improves... thank you!

Don't panic @emeraldcity2000 I have been in a similar situation. The worst bit was the faux sympathy from other parents 'oh really, you send your child there' (with accompanying head tilt.) However, DC1 who loves learning achieved brilliantly at that school and in secondary & DC2 who is not a self-motivated learner also passed all SATS and got GD in their area of interest.

You will actually find that now is the best time to be at that school because they will be hot on the areas to improve on and ALL the curriculum & better enrichment opportunities will be offered. Ours went straight up to good again (after a couple of years of monitoring?) and we got lots more info on the children's progress at the point they were RI so as a parent it was beneficial to tracking your own child's education better.

If your DD is happy and progressing well remember do focus on that.

Oh and remember there is NO perfect school out there, they have different strengths and weaknesses and the ethos of some may fit your DC better than others.

An old 'outsanding' OFSTED does not necessarily mean the school would meet the new OFSTED criteria for outstanding now so even that wouldn't guarantee your DC would thrive or progress any better there than they are doing now.

Thanks @Baggyeye . Good to hear your experience and that it turned out okay ! X

Have a look at the school performance tables over time and then look at the KS2 results for 2022. If there are other local schools with recent Ofsted Outstanding or Good judgements and good progress attainment, you could look at them, but given your daughter is happy and achieving well, I would resist a knee jerk reaction.

Have a look at the independent schools you are considering and the work of the children your daughter’s age. They are likely to have a lot of children starting at 7. Maybe enter her for the assessment and decide on a course of action if she is offered a place. By then, you should be clearer on the improvement plan for her current school.

I’m not the OP, but have KS1 and/or KS2 data for 2022 on a school basis actually been published yet?

We were in the exact position a few years ago. Could have written your post almost word for word. School went into special measures - the ofsted report was honestly HORRENDOUS.

Lots of parents moved their children but lots stuck it out for the same reasons we did - kids were happy and doing well.

Best decision we made. A school with that result will have so much thrown at it to improve. Follow your gut. We felt like we really had to justify ourselves to some other parents...but that was more of an annoyance more than anything.

There is a big difference between an Ofsted judgement of Inadequate / Requires Special Measures and Requires Improvement; it’s not the same.

It is quite likely the Head will leave shortly anyway.

Requires Improvement used to be called "Satisfactory", so if your dd is doing well at KS1 and the issues identified are in KS2 she should be fine. By the time she reaches KS2 these should have been sorted out.
There is a shortage of Headteachers and many only stay for a few years, so that it likely to change.