Oh no! The school we've just accepted a place at's new Ofsted report is not great

[flymetothemoon]

We had a choice of two schools, one with an outstanding Ofsted and the other with a satisfactory one but it was out of date and the head had changed since the last inspection.

For several reasons we chose the satisfactory one (main one being it was much, much closer to home).

The new Ofsted report has just come out and is no better.

We'd spoken to friends with kids at the school and they are happy but Ofsted clearly are unimpressed. One major specific issue raised is the teaching is too formal and outdated, another is something we knew hadn't changed about the infrastructure and were fine with.

Worrying that we've made the wrong decision now....can anyone reassure me?!?

If you liked the school ok before the report and you feel that your child will do well with the teaching style then is there much to be concerned about?

I'm sure they will be trying to improve and take the inspection criticisms on board so things could easily change while your child is at the school.

Satisfactory also means exactly that - it satisfactorily meets the needs of the school population. It does some things good and some things less than satisfactory but overall it is a satisfactory school.

We seem to get it into our heads that it must be good or outstanding and anything less is not worth bothering with - which is the majority of schools.

If you like it and it's close then those are great things. And your friends are happy - that goes a looooooooong way with me.

There are other factors to how good a school is that ofsted don't necessarily consider. Go with you gut feeling.

My DD's school got an outstanding last month. Frankly I am astounded, I have several issues that I have not been happy with since she started there. Reading the report, it sounds like another school to me

I really wouldn't panic. I moved my child from a "good" school to a "satisfactory" one, which I find much much better. Ds2 goes to an "outstanding" school and it's no great shakes. There are two "satifactory" High schols near here - one popel would kill to get there child in, and one people would rather give up work and home ed whle waiting for a place at another school so their DC doesn't have to enter the building.

Can you tell I have little faith in Ofted reports?

Why are they so unreliable?

Guess it comes down to the fact they're quite subjective as only a couple of inspectors involved?

I think they are based to a certain extent on the (SATs) results a school achieves. Ds1's school has quite a few easten european children who's first language isn't English, so of course don't achieve so well in their SATs - and the schoolis "Satisfactory" DS2's "Outstanding" school gets great Sat's results, but is in a very, white middle class area of town so is going to get get better results, even if the quality of teaching, etc, is the same.