OFSTED

[Rachaelrachael]

My daughter is due to start school in September 2023 and the obvious choice is the primary school 2 minutes away from us.
The problem is they haven't had an Ofsted inspection in 5 years (last graded as Good). I always thought inspections were done every 4 years?
We're new to the area so unsure about the school's reputation. I've tried to arrange a visit to the school but the receptionist sounded a bit bemused by my request and said someone would call back. Haven't had a call back so I will chase them.
It's my 1st child so I'm not sure what the normal process is. Don't most primary schools have open days for prospective new pupils?
Is there any point in delaying my application hoping that Ofsted will visit, or is it normal to have gaps of over 5 years between visits?
Thanks in advance for any advice!

To address the OFSTED thing first of all, that’s pretty normal - they seem to be running about 5 years after a good in our local area, so they’re probably due one in the next year or so.

Secondly, have a look on their website and see if there are any tours mentioned? It may have been you got a random or new member of staff. Again in my local area the norm is for primary schools to have a number of tours for parents. That does seem unusual that they haven’t (unless they’ve been and gone?)

I had to chase about 4 times to get open days , to be fair it was all on the website, but hidden.

The schools which were friendly and told me about open days compared to ones who ignored emails or said they'd get back to me went well below my preference list.

As its your nearest and most likely to get, I'd just badger them to get the dates. Keep in mind many open days have been and gone in October for Sep 23 places, but a good school (in my mind) should always have a fair few open days that stretch to November , in the worst case, if you've missed them, they should let you have an informal look at the school between now and Jan deadline

Most schools do have Open Days - check their website, or it might be worth ringing back and asking (possibly the receptionist sounded bemused because people just come the Open Day - not request separate visits).
The schools round here have 1 or sometimes 2 open Days - bear in mind it's an upheaval for the school to run it, so they can't just organise ad-hoc visits all the time.
In our area you can change your list of preferences as many times as you like until the closing date. However, there is no downside to applying later (as long as you don't forget). I think Ofsted may well have a backlog due to Covid.

In terms of finding out what the school is like, asking other parents is always a good idea - try your DC's friends' parents with older children, or neighbours, or even just hang around outside school!

Thanks everyone for your advice 😊
There's nothing on their website about open days so this was my 1st question when I called and apparently they didn't have any open days planned when i first called over a month ago! That was when I asked if we could visit. (Sorry I should have explained that in my last post).

It is a village school but still seems strange how difficult it is to get through the door for a quick look around! I'm going to call them again tomorrow. I would definitely feel more relaxed if there was a recent Ofsted report to go on...

That’s odd. All the local schools here have been advertising open days or tours since September for October/November.

If they had Ofsted at good in 2017 they will very likely have it this year, probably sooner rather than later.

You must submit your school preference form by the deadline, but there's no benefit or drawback with doing it early, so you don't need to rush. As someone said, in some LA areas you can log in again and amend your preferences as many times as you like before the deadline, but our LA recently stopped allowing this, so you will need to check.

OFSTED reports are useful, but are not the be-all and end-all. You say you're new to the area - is there anyone you know that has a child in the school currently? If not, can you ask at any local groups you might be involved in, or nursery, the local library, corner shop etc? Avoid old feedback - it is really only relevant to hear from people with current knowledge of the school.

I would definitely follow up with the school to see if they can arrange a visit. I think you might have left it a bit late as they tend to do them in October, but hopefully someone could at least chat to you. Do you have any particular questions pertaining to your child's needs/interests?

Although this is your local school and, all being well, will be a school you're happy to send your child to, it is also a good idea to check out the next closest schools, as it's better to have more than one option. Obviously, depending on whether catchment areas apply or the distance criteria for the local schools, you may not have many options, but it's worth checking.

Ofsted are mopping up the remaining summer 2017 inspections and have started on autumn 2017 for good. But some are further behind- one of our summer 2016 was just done

Personally I would pay almost no heed to an Ofsted report.

A school local to me has had an inadequate Ofsted rating and it still hasn't uploaded on the website yet. It still shows as good 5 years ago. Sometimes the reports take a while to be published. If you email them and ask or ask someone local who has children at that school they might know as it's usually sent to parents before hand.

Our school had a 'requires improvement' in early 2019 and they haven't reinspected yet. I read somewhere that they are 5 terms behind.