How much do you consider Ofsted inspection findings when choosing a school?

[NoahAndTheWhale]

We are moving house by September and over the past couple of days I have visited lots of schools in our new general area, to work out where we want DS and DD to go to school and hence where we want to live.

One of the schools I liked best has a grade 3 but said to be rapidly improving. It was inspected last month, so it is a recent judgement. Conversely the only school I was looking at that was graded level 1 is one I didn't like.

We never made an active decision about the school DS (and now DD as well) went to - it is our village school (which is great, and did receive a grade 1 from ofsted when last inspected).

I think I am starting to distrust my own intuition on schools - maybe I need someone to tell me I can trust my own feelings .

I would say go with your own gut feeling. Schools can be improving and have committed staff, a desire to get that school better and don't rest on their laurels. Schools are often improving as old head had been there too long/was crap- a new head will be keen to get the school back on track.
Often grade 3 schools will be good on pastoral care which is so important.
Best thing about the new ofsted report- often has the head's personal email address on, so you can contact direct!

I am currently looking for a school for DS. I have to admit I did use the ofsted reports to decide which ones we wanted to look at. We ended up looking at 3 that were outstanding and one that was 1s and 2s. We loved 2 of the outstanding ones, hated the other and the 1s and 2s one was OK!

Go with your gut instinct. Ds is having to have professional counselling after being traumatised by his 'outstanding'infant school!

I use them just to help me decide which ones to visit.

Are you moving far away Noah?

oh no Mallen
As i said we hated an oustanding, hugely oversubscribed one. We both said there was no chance he'd be going there (not that theres any worry, it's miles away)

We're moving to York, so quite a way .

Ofsted reports do not give an accurate picture of a school on the whole. There are too many schools that are given great ofsted reports that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole and also some with okay reports that are a joy to be in. Use ofsted reports as part of your decision making process but as other mn's have said trust your gut instinct. You could ask neighbours too about their opinions but remember to take them with a pinch of salt. Some schools get 'bad' or 'good' reputations within a community for no good reason.

Gut instinct and the views of parents who already have (or had) children at the relevant schools are most important to me. I found that most parents (even random strangers that I accosted in playgrounds)were more than happy to tell me what they thought of their childrens' schools and were very candid.

Thank you for the thoughts - I think that going with my gut instinct does seem right - now need to sell this house and find one to rent near to whichever school we do go with .

We're moving about 160 miles away so it does mean the process has to be concentrated in small bursts - in some ways it would be easier to be moving a shorter distance but we are looking forward to the move.

From my experience, go with your gut. Essentially I had three local schools to choose from:

My first choice for dd was the one rated best by Ofsted, loved it when I visited but dd didn't get in.

Second choice was the worst rated by Ofsted, didn't know anyone who had dc there but when I visited I thought it was lovely and I noted that the Ofsted had said that it had a recently appointed head. Dd got in here and the Ofsted from Jan is great, really improved good school which was my gut instinct at the time of my visit.

Third choice was second rated by Ofsted but I really didn't like it.

Would definately say to go with your instinct in the final decision. You have to be confident that your child will cared for as well as educated.
I know it may be difficult for you but visits are very important for getting a feel for the school. Sounds a bit odd but we took fil with us and his opinion really helped when we moved.

How the school feels to you when you go around it is vitally important. An OFSTED report is a tiny snapshot of a school and can be very unfair in its final assessment of some schools, and excessively generous of others. So long as the report isn't hugely negative, it's better to see for yourself. Don't be one of the dupes who thinks an "outstanding" school will automatically be better for your child. Plenty of "outstanding" schools have a pretty poisonous atmosphere for any child (or parent) who doesn't fit their mould.

We've gone for a grade 3 school over the grade 2 school where dd is currently at Nursery, pretty much on gut feeling. We also looked at the most recent Year 6 results and there didn't seem to be much difference between the two schools, which suggested that the grade 3 school had improved somewhat since the last inspection.

But dd doesn't start until September so I've no idea whether it's the right decision yet.

[unhelpful]

After an experience of OFSTED I wouldn't put a lot of faith in their views.

Echo what the others have said abot vieing the school yourself. Use the Ofsted report purely to infor yourself before you visit but take your own child's needs into consideration. Its your kid that has to thrive there.

We have gone for the "least good" school in the area - so known because it didn't get a good OFsted in one area three years ago. They have done loads of work in that area, have a new head and whilst its local repuation isn't good, the only bad press I hear is from parents who have never visited the school and whose kids go elsewhere. All the kids I know who go there are happy and confident.

We didn't want an academic hot house for DD1 - she's the youngest in the year and pastoral care is high on our priority list. We wanted a school focused on its community rather than its results. You'll get a good gut feeling going round the school and talking to the kids about what they are doing.

The other thing we looked at was whether they have good music provision - I think this is very important for children. The "better" school near us doesn't.

Really interested to read this thread as at the moment DH and I are weighing up whether to move our 5 year old DS from an "outstanding" infants school (where he is settled and happy) with a "satisfactory" juniors to another "outstanding" infants with an "outstanding" juniors. DH thinks we should move him based on the fact that the outstanding juniors has better results but I'm inclined to leave DS where he is. I agree with the other mums who have said to go with your gut instinct, I am trying to do this in my situation but unfortunately am having to battle DH!!! Good luck with whatever you decide x

Agree with Rabbitstew, an OFSTED grade is just a couple of peoples opinions, there is so much more to a school.

Mix of gut instinct, other parents experiences, SATs and ofsted. I take all except my instinct with a pinch of salt. DD goes to a school with average SATs, and good ofsted whereas I could have gone for the outstanding school with excellent SATs. The reason for me was that DDs school as an overall package was better IMO.

Oh that is quite a way Noah - guess I won't be bumping into you in Mothercare any more!

My last ofsted was carried out by a FE college lecturer and two people from industry (e.g. nowt to do with education). So what they were doing inspecting a primary school I'll never know.

Personally I don't look at the Ofsted reports of schools - I look at their websites, read the newsletter and visit (ideally just before or after a play/lunchtime for one of the visits) and see for myself what's going on, hang around outside at the end of the day. I've not yet come across an 'outstanding' primary school that I would willingly send my DDs to.

However, I am a primary teacher myself so am always disappointed by how little of what matters counts for much with Ofsted.

Well, the wonders of MN is that if you name the schools directly on here, there are bound to be people with children attending those schools who can give you their personal lowdown. Much more info than the stats or Ofsted.

Oh Selby you've just given me a marvellous idea. Get rid of Ofsted and just have continuous threads about schools so people could see how they really operate.

Again, don't get too hung up about sats results...they are not what you child will get but an average of all the results and generally just reflect the intake of the children.

But Ofsted love good sats results and seem to be much less critical of schools with good sats than schools with poor sats...but there could be poor schools in leafy suburbs that get away with it because their intake are from clever prosperous homes.