Choosing a school when all are "unacceptable"

[askeptical1]

OFSTED recently blitzed our area with every secondary school being inspected last month (most think its part of a political conspiracy) but the main problem is that all 11 secondary schools are now rated grade 4 - unsatisfactory.
Our main problem now is what do we do?
As we live quite rural and the schools all within a 20 mile radius of the house we really have no options about going further afield.
Would like some advice please as to whether we just put our ds1 into one of the failing schools or do something dramatic like going private (something we have never considered).
Does anyone have any experience of sending their dc to unsatisfactory schools?

But the problem is, there is no 'Satisfactory' any more - only 'Requires Improvement', so, if all schools are meant to be either Good or Outstanding, surely that makes Good or Outstanding actually mean 'normal' and is therefore either a completely arbitrary measure, or otherwise unachievable?

The whole thing rather reminds me of the US president (I forget which one) who said who said he wanted everybody in the country to be earning above average wage.

I also think with the new Ofsted criteria that if pupils did not make expected levels of progress in English and Maths, the best grade the school could achieve was Requires Improvement. I understand that many schools have therefore had a problem with this due to the downgrading of English GCSE results (by Ofqual) a couple of years ago. Worth looking if this is the case? According to one of the governors of our local school, this was a major issue for them.

If the schools are doing pretty well (exam results) but not adding massively on value (possibly related to over inflated Primary school SATs or even pupils from Primary schools massively moving on to Private/boarding schools) then this could lead to that kind of OFSTED.

My DDs school is due an OFSTED inspection anytime now, and I think no-one really expects them to retain their Outstanding, not because the school has got any worse (its got better) but because it is very hard for a great school to keep improving massively. Although being a Tory/marginal area maybe there will be political pressure before the election.

I would look at the schools. See what they failed on, and think seriously about your son.

To be honest lots of pupils have in the past gone to very ropey schools, but because of great parents have ended up with very good outcomes.

yes. DD2 (now Y8) were crammed something awful for SATS because their primary had had a run in with OFSTED.

Given the top table were dead cert L5's (and extremely likely As at GCSE) it probably hasn't bothered the high school as much as it might have done.

However, I don't know how many 4c, went to 4b and 4b to 4a, but I suspect there were some and I bet the pattern has been repeated across the seniors schools many small feeder schools.

It's difficult as the inspections are not all carried out at the same time. So we have a 'satisfactory' on our list along with a (very recently assessed ) 'requires improvement' and it's easy to assume one is better than the other.

The trouble with asking around parents is that one parent will rate the school, another will think it's appalling.

Am considering HE the older one now as well as the 6yo.

there have been two big Ofsted "blitz" visits recently : both of them overtly political to weaken LEAs who will not do what Gove wants.
Go see the schools and see how that actually feel

if they are already academies, SM is not a panacea - it just increases the chance of you being bumped over to a dodgy non transparent academy chain

OP, if you do have the option then dont send your DCs to a very poor school. The frustration for yourself and DCs will be soul destroying.

We have a Hobson's choice of just one unutterably crap (currently near enough at the bottom of the league tables) secondary school. The school has recently been academied which seems to be slowing its decline. Currently the school aspires to be 'requires improvement' at its next ofsted inspection. If it doesnt achieve this then it will be back in Special Measures for the third time in our association with the school.

The problem with the school is that it is atrociously led. For too long there has been a layer of incompetent deadwood management allowing poor senior teachers to remain in post. There are good teachers but they tend to be too junior to be able to make a difference.

If I could send my DCs anywhere else then I would. Unfortunately we have no choice.

Having to send my DCs to such a poor school makes my blood boil.

Well, made appointments to go and have a look at the schools during the school day that ds placed on the form last year so hopefully, this will give a good insight to what's happening. Also done thorough scrutiny of Ofsted reports and found that in the previous inspection some of the schools were actually commended for how much they had improved.
Seems like a political thing to me as well starballbunny and also to other parents as we live in a very labour area and none of the schools are academy's. A similar thing happened a few years ago in another area close by and now all their schools are academy's and seem to be doing the same as they were before their Ofsted blitz.
Hopefully the next few days will give a bit of insight especially as previously the schools have all had good leadership.
Thanks for your advice worrysighworrysigh, ill bare this in mind.
Fingers crossed.

My advice is to read the reports. The 'headline' might be a 4 but the school get grades on a variety of things (behaviour; teaching; leadership). I read the report of one school which got a 3 overall because the Governors were not actively involved enough - everything else was a 2!

Why did they get a poor rating? Was it for things that matter to you or for stuff on the periphery?

OFSTED 'swooping into regions' is usually politically motivated. They go with an agenda to show a local authority is rubbish. Usually they are right but sometimes good schools see their grades suffer in this regard by association with the region - it seems as if there is a pre-set agenda that the reports into schools must back up.

The key thing is to get into schools and have a look around. Talk to parents of kids who are there (the parents of kids who are not will offer lots of advice but often based on rumour/innuendo). Talk to the Head & students.

We sent my daughter to a Primary School that was graded a '3'. Friends thought us mad when we could have got her into a couple of OFSTED Good schools. We just felt the Head's vision matched what we wanted for our daughter.

Since then OFSTED visited again and gave a report that was a mix of 1's and 2's whereas the other local schools have stagnated or slipped down.

That does look very fishy.

Mean while we are marginal with all academies and still have grief from Ofsted.

I really do think they are hedging their bets, to still have jobs regardless of who wins the election!

Having had to live with a very poor school for many years now, things I would do differently now:

• look at how the school communicate with parents. At the school's lowest point we were getting email 'good boy'/'good girl' notes but had no idea how our DCs were performing academically

• beware of your well behaved child being used by teachers to try to improve behaviour. My DCs got fed up with having to manage both themselves and the 'naughty kid' they got put to sit next to. Be selfish.

• watch out for schools focusing on trivia. We had a new head dumped on us. First thing he did was change uniform, second thing he did was run us straight to the bottom of the league tables. The uniform change was a distraction for the school and meant that the head was not looking at the things that actually mattered.

• talk to your children about what they are doing at school. Are they getting homework marked and returned? Are they having a lot of supply teachers who do little more than supervise silent reading? Is work being differentiated according to ability. I didnt do enough of this. Be prepared to complain, to kick up a fuss.

I knew this was going to be a Labour controlled authority before I read your last message. And now the schools have to close or become academies.

Thanks for all your advice. We have been around a couple of the schools today and going to the others next week. Both of the schools seem to have a clear direction (one more so than the other), good behaviour and GCSE results improving year on year although there is talk of a merger between some of the schools in the area into an academy.

Has anyone had any experience of this happening?

We were a bit worried that this might disrupt education as depending on which schools merge could depend on the outcome (some of the schools have a reputation for not getting along - you can probably imagine the outcome of that).
We have looked at a private school which seems excellent but very pricey so were sticking with state.
Sorry about all of the questions just trying to get the best from a bad situation.

OP is it too late to move - that seems to be the obvious thing to do. Presumably these schools didn't suddenly deteriorate overnight.

Of course these schools didn't deteriorate over night, chances are they didn't deteriorate at all.

DDs school went good, satisfactory, SM while it's exam results went up year on year.

The whole ofsted business is very, very, fishy.

I smell conspiracy and local council wishes to redistribute pupils, rather than pupil welfare. (We are an academy, so at least they are in the clear on that can of worms).

Which school(s) would you have considered before the recent Ofsteds? Has anything actually changed apart from the ratings?

We are looking at the schools ds placed on the form plus one other FamiliesShareGerms. We understand its too late to make any real decisions until march but it is nice to know what the plans are for the schools before we make any rash decisions (not that we are planning to).
The schools so far seem to be the same as they were before hand with the pupils and current parents finding them ok.

It has emerged in the evening paper though that 2 of the schools will merge to become an academy and one will close giving us another problem.
Our top school is merging with a school that I wouldn't even send my worse enemy to, its notorious for fights, bullying and police, underage pregnancy and truancy, disrupted lessons and the only school in the area that deserved a 4.

I'm worried and concerned what this will bring when the schools merge as our top school was the total opposite.

Its also been shown that Ofsted have it in for labour constituencies and their inspection methods are outdated so I don't think ill place much emphasis on the Ofsted any more after all the advice I've had off people.

Its also been shown that Ofsted have it in for labour constituencies

Is there really evidence for this? It is a shocking statement.

It probably is a really bad statement with absolutely no evidence and I shouldn't go by it but is basically what our local paper way saying. Sorry for the generalisation.

DDs school is an academy in a conservative constituency, didn't stop Ofsted chucking it in category 4 for bugger all reason.

Or thinking about it, we may have ended up in SM for much the same reason as the OP's schools.

Nearest town has amalgamated two very very poor schools, from which we poach bright children. If we get a 4 we don't look worth paying £100's a year in bus fare.

Town school gets better intake, results go up, council look clever.

Well we've reassessed the situation. Looked around the three schools ds placed on the form, one other and a private school as well as talking to parents, students, teachers and watching behaviour.

We have decided against the private school (way too pricey) and the school we originally placed first due to the merger.

We were wondering how we could change our preferences if possible?

Strangely the school we placed last is the one that we think will be the best for ds and has the most potential. Now we have done a lot of digging and schools aren't trying to show off at parents evenings we are seeing a better picture.

Does anyone know if we can change preferences this late in the game?
(FYI its a religious school)

Are any of the HTs new? A new head can make a huge difference but a school cannot change overnight. No substitute for visiting the school.

The head teacher will be new for the schools which merge and a new head is starting after half term for the now preferred school (our original 3rd preference). The new head and the old head are already working closely together and it is only 2 weeks since the Ofsted reports were published.
This is the one we want to make our first school if we can change our preferences.

I think you can change your preferences but you will be considered as a late applicant. If you preferred school is under-subscribed then this shouldn't be a problem, but if over-subscribed you will be at the bottom of the list I think.