What would you do if your child's primary school got an ofsted report of 'requires improvement'?

[MermaidMartian]

What would you do if your child's primary school got an ofsted report of 'requires improvement'?

Would you try and move them?

Our boy is happy at his school, but we've always thought that educationally he could be doing better than he is. He's very clever and the teachers' have never really tried to challenge him.

Now they've just had a dodgy ofsted report. The rating was 'good' when he started. We NEVER would have put him in a school with a 'requires improvement' rating.

Would you move your child, even though they are happy?

I was in this situation. When the school got the requires improvement grade it just confirmed concerns I already had. I didn't move him though as he was very against being moved.

I wouldn’t be happy with that, especially if you already feel your DC should be achieving more. I’d move him if possible.

If it's quality of education that gets the low score, yes, I'd be concerned, especially since you already had concerns about your child not being stretched. It's definitely worth reading the full report to get an idea of where the problems are.

Unless your DS was super duper happy there and would hate to move, I'd be looking at local alternatives for KS2.

I'm a retired teacher with little respect for OFSTED, but I'm also a grandmother, and I was taken by surprised at how worried I was to find that the school that my DGD would be attending, was RI. Fortunately just before she started it was inspected again and judged Good. There'd been a lot of staff changes in the meantime, which OFSTED mentioned, so it seems that there had been a fair bit of substandard teaching, which I wouldn't have been tolerant of.

Join the governing body and help do something about it.

I always take Ofsted reports with a pinch of salt. My dcs went to an outstanding' secondary school and as a parent governor there I could see all sorts of problems.

Much better to be involved with your dc's education - talk to their teacher about how your dc is stretched and what you can do to support this. He's happy where he is - don't move him.

If they are happy and you are happy. Leave them be.
requires improvement is the key to more funding and support.
mine were at a school that required improvement, they really got the best of that school as a result. The staff worked tirelessly to support the school and the pupils, the extra funding flooded cough in and they had support from all sorts of agencies, universities other schools.
They also benefited with the smaller classes when people jumped ship.

ofsted is a tickbox report carried out over 1 or 2 days that’s it. Your experience is day in day out.

And, if you move him, you risk his next school not getting a great Ofsted report next time round too.

I don't think I would move based solely on the Ofsted report, but it sounds like you weren't very impressed with the school even before the inspection. I would definitely look into other options. Your DS still has nearly four years of primary school left, so a move could definitely end up being worth the upheaval. It all depends on how the alternative schools compare (and if they have space).

What @NellieJean said - get involved.

The closest school to us when ds was little had a bad reputation. I joined the governing body to find out the details, and discovered a really exceptional newish head teacher moving mountains and happy for educational contributions from parents, and a well supported staff team. Was very happy with ds's education there.

Our school got requires improvement a while back. It seems to imply that the teachers aren’t doing a good job but it was actually because we were trying to do too much! As soon as we received the report back and stripped down what we were doing to fully implement everything we went back up to good.
I hate the one word statement OFSTED gives out. It’s always so important to read the report.

Definitely find out what plans HT and governors have. Is school Local Authority or Academy? If LA, it should get extra support to address the issues. Then decide how to proceed.

I think a lot depends on the HT. How long have they been in post - if they are a new appointment they are probably well aware of the shortcomings and will already be working to move things forward. If they have been there since the last OFSTED, which was good, then they might have been coasting a bit since and have not being rigorous in implementing ways to manage change, evaluate progress and get things moving.

A new head, with a good SMT and a supportive LA , can get things moving surprisingly quickly, a head who has allowed things to slide will find it much harder to galvanise their staff and implement change.

@viques thanks for that, that really helped, I didn't even think of that. The current head of the school is wonderful, but actually in and out a lot with health problems. So yeah, I think that has nudged me into a decision, I think we'll at least hand the forms in and see what we get offered.

Thank you everyone

Personally I wouldn't move a happy child.

I put my DC in a school which was on requires improvement, over other schools which were closer and had better Ofsted ratings. I looked round many, and that was the one I liked best.

This happened at my kids school about 15 years ago. A new head came in and turned things round and is now the best primary school in the area and has been for some time. Having said that my son was very bright and still got bored even under the new head so I would look at the whole picture.

I'd do nothing unless I had other substantial concerns. Ofsted judgements are not, imho, to be trusted.

Is he happy and has nice friends? That would be focus for me at that age. You can always challenge him at home or with a tutor/music teacher.

moving will set him back a little so don’t do it unless you have many reasons

I have no faith in Ofsted and this is one of the reasons why.