SATS - school terrible, advice please

[pickupthismess]

DS is in reception and his brother is following him next year.

We chose the school and indeed moved to the village on the whole basis that the primary was one of the best in the county.

Over the last two years the SATS results have been terrible and this year the school is one of the lowest.

I've heard rumblings that some parents have left and some new kids aren't coming but it's a bit like a police state in our playground. Noone will ever say a bad word about the school and you are looked on askance for questioning it.

I know nothing about SATS other than they are controversial but surely this kind of sudden downward trend is indicative of something???

I want to speak to someone but don't know if it should be the Head, who is acknowledged by all as lazy and can't be arsed or the governors. Help.

Should I send the boys somewhere else?

lala - thanks for that explanation. I always wondered. So 110 is good I guess.

110 sounds a bit of an odd score - they are usually a point or two above/below 100 - a school near us got 104 which put it in the top 15 in the UK.

I am curious to know why/how the school went from being top of the county to bottom in (presumably) a couple of years.

Me too Lala. I've heard they had soem disruptive pupils last year but we are talking a small village with very very middle to upper middle class intake. Parents give lots of support to the kids so how can the VA be effectively minus and how can it drop like a stone in SATS?

People have been saying the Head would retire for the last few years and he's still there. I think it is now coasting along with the time serving teachers.

There may be some shenanigans. I know a governor at a primary school where the HT was falsifying some of the SATS papers before submitting them - she was found out and all the papers that she had tampered with were discounted (for some reason she had only played around with the most able pupils' work) so the average bombed that year. I'm not suggesting that is what your HT has done but it could be some sort of procedural thing rather than all the pupils in the school suddenly failing to learn.

The HT sounds very like our outgoing (hurrah!) HT and I was amazed at how easily she went once a few parents started putting pressure on her, demanding answers, refusing to be dismissed, pestering. Do you know any governors or could you become one? The HT's resignation coincided with the arrival of some new blood on the governing body and I think she just saw the writing on the wall. A lot of HTs like this have got away with poor performance by just ignoring criticism and refusing to acknowledge dissent - start asking questions, demanding meetings, getting other parents to do the same. If you get no joy, then start doing the same to the governing body. Be prepared to make a nuisance of yourself.

Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 CVA Measure (centred around 100)

101.5 + = Top 5% of schools nationally
98.4 and below = Bottom 5% of schools nationally

I'm sorry to hijack the thread again, but re cat64's point. DD's school (mixed infant & junior) has its total number of pupils at 204 including nursery, so that's quite small right? The school has a good 'vibe' and that's what's important I reckon. DD is predicted 3A's in her year 2 SATS so she's ok. I'm not worrying about her brothers yet as they are some years behind.

How big is the school pickup?
We were in a tiny school where the SATs varied hugely from year, one year ok, the next terrible. However there were only 10-15 children a year, so a year with a higher percentage of SEN could make the school look bad, even though this might not be the case.
Actually what am I saying... I'm trying to be neutral
The SATs became consistently poor and actually it was obvious that the head just couldn't cope. I moved them.

The whole school is about 70 pupils and Reception has around 9. So you can see it is small.

However, according to mrsz - we are int he bottom 5% of schools looking at VA

I'd love to take on the Head or the governors (which is a real closed shop of local worthies/busybodies and the vicar). Soemone I know tried to get on it a few years ago when there was a vacancy and you wouldn't believe the excuses they came up with to stop her joining. Needless to say the place went to another non parent/parish councillor.

A few parents did complain last year and really didn't get support from other parents. In fact they were rounded on for being negative. They have taken their children elsewhere because they just couldn't get change. As I said before everyone does feel the Head is useless but noone wants to rock the boat because he'll leave in a few years. But again I feel it isn't just the Head but also a number of teachers and unless they go too I can't see things changing.

Also although the parents are all professionals/wealthy farmers there is a real 'couldn't care' attitude to the situation. Many take the view, "well it's just primary,I'm sending them to AN Other (private school) for secondary and they'll learn everything then".

My children went to a small primary 10 children per year group and a single child being absent for the SATs could make a huge difference to the league tables/results (that's without considering children with SEN who may be exempt or working significantly below expected levels) which is why they are an inaccurate measure of a schools overall performance.

I take on board what you say about your head teacher but would like to say if results fall it usually triggers either OFSTED or LA inspections and the school improvement partner will want to know what measures the school intend to put in place to correct problems.