If your child has just been allocated a "requires improvement" secondary school, how do you feel?

[neolara]

Both of our local secondary schools are RI schools. And yes, OFSTED are not always right, but I hear through the grapevine from people who work in the school, that in these circumstances, they probably are. There is a local outstanding secondary school, but its a faith school and we're not church goers. I'm so bloody pissed off that my dd has to go to crappy schools because I'm not religious and don't have £100,000 to spend on her education. I live in a very affluent area with a population that has a higher than average interest in education (University town). These schools have predominantly supportive parents and not don't have "difficult" catchments. They are just not very good schools.

I feel really properly cross about it and am trying very hard to look like i'm excited and pleased for my dd. I'm finding it quite hard. I know I need to get a grip, but I'm jsut having a ranty moment.....

You have to look at the reasons for RI, their value added rather than just the headline. A school in my LA which is RI has fantastic results, VA and is a goid school, they were put into RI for rediculous reasons, whilst another LA school fully deserve their RI

I fully understand how you feel ...BUT....things can and do change ....we live in the catchment for a secondary school that was in special measures...we went to great length to move our daughter to a school that was out of catchment but took pupils in at yr 7 instead of yr9 (three tier system council).... This was a good school but lets say in a year went from 64% (A-C) to 50% ...total lack of control in classes so we opted out after just one year and are now paying for education .... HOWEVER - the school in SM our catchment school has been an amazing success since its new management was installed two years ago and its GCSE's A-C were 81% last year...so schools can turn it around very quickly with good management.

My daughter went to a new primary school in HK at that time it was considered band 5 (really bad school) as it had no results.

When she left that school the results gained via getting the kids to be tutored and lots and lots of homework. Which turned the kids of learning. It became the top band 1 primary in its district. fantastic name but the pupils were slogged to death.

I know how you feel but please don't be too disheartened - hopefully the school is "on the up". My DS is in Year 11 at a school that went from Good with Outstanding features to Special Measures then back to Requires Improvements - given the huge improvements it should soon be at Good.
What is also important to remember is that the category "requires improvement" is what used to be called "satisfactory" which doesn't sound quite so bad.
As you say, If you are enthusiastic about the school it will help your DD to also look forward to the move. So maybe keep an eye on their website etc and find out about positive things that are happening there - sports, drama, trips etc - whatever will excite your DD. Hopefully this will also help you to feel more positive - I know it has helped us to focus on the good.
Finally just as an aside my DS went into went to an outstanding primary school that tended to focus on the highflyers whether it was academic or sportin . He blended in and did just "ok" - being a summer birthday he was just below average. Yet at High School he has flown - has been enthused and encouraged - due to get a really good set of GCSE's as well as been chosen to go on a charity trip to India in Yr 10, completed his D of E Bronze - and much more - all when the school was in Special Measures!!
So try to be positive - ofsted ratings are the most important thing.

My DD was at a school that went into special measures when she was in year 8 - she got 12 A's at GCSE, and a ton of support. I think the Ofsted system is fundamentally flawed and would rely on my own judgement.

Have you looked into why they "require improvement"?

No reason to be bothered by a school just because it "Requires Improvement" - you need to be bothered by WHY it Requires Improvement and what it's doing about it. A school that is actually improving can be a far better school to be in than one lazily sitting on a judgement of "Good" or "Outstanding."

What have these "through the grapevine" people been telling you?

My DDs' school was rated as 'special measures' the year before we chose to send DD1 there. The latest report is 'outstanding'. TBH over the 7 years DD1 has been there, I have not noticed much difference. It has always been a good school, and both DDs have done well and enjoyed school life.

Don't despair - generally they are the schools that get loads of support and checks and get turned around by the time your dc reaches GCSEs. As you are a supportive and interested parent you will be an asset to your child 's education anyway.

The only way a school gets out of RI is to have brilliant leadership. What did the report say about the leadership? If the teaching and learning are not up to scratch, you need to find out if the leadership are capable of doing anything about it.

You could also look at the value added scrores and all the information on the Government's web site to see how it compares with similar schools. If a school has a poor VA score then children are not reaching their potential, whether they get 12 A grades or not. It could have been some A*s at a better school. It is also very useful to see how the middle and higher ability children fare in this school. I think you also possibly have the problem that some families with higher achieving children get into the other school or pay, so the results are not as good as they might be. However, Ofsted will have looked at progress and what you now need to do is look at the school's ability to improve - and that is leadership!

Have these RI schools had good reputation before? What do their OFSTED reports point out? My yr 7 dd is in a school which had been well regarded long term but the two years before her time the school did not do well in GCSEs and Ofsted reports. Since alot of staff left and replaced. Now the school is working very hard to regain its formal reputation. At the time we were considering this school I heard a lot of negative things about the school. However so far we still believe this is the right school for her. The school GCSEs results have gone back up again in the last league table.

We have a faith school which is also many parents' favourite school. However the school does take in non faith children. My dc2 is in a faith primary school and most children go to the same faith secondary school regardless their own religious background. Some children appealed and some were on the waiting list to get in.

Well, the following is true:-

1. The worst is over, the school is now getting better,
2. The County Education Dept. know the problems and will be pouring extra money/time/resources into the school.
3. The Staff and Governors know the problems and are sorting them out now.

Remember:- Because of the extra money, time and effort going into the school it will arguably be the best school for miles around.

I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach to be honest. My daughter has just been refused a place at her older brothers school. He's in year 7 at a slightly out of catchment ( 0.2 miles!) that is the only outstanding catholic school within 50 miles! We have no idea why our daughter has been denied a place and feel absolutely devastated. I also have a son in reception so come September I may well have three children in three separate schools!

Are you Catholic?

Gracie32 - Without knowing all the details it’s difficult to comment but in my experience siblings of children already at the school (at the time of admission) are quite high on the list of the admission criteria.

It might be worth double checking things or appealing.

Sorry, but as far as I can see, there is a huge myth around "a requiring improvement" school will get money and resources thrown at it. Can anyone please tell me where this pot of money is? So far I have just seen time and resources sapped from the school, and a huge loss of funding as the school is now undersubscribed for the first time in 20 years.

For all those posters saying that schools can and do change - sometimes they don't for many years, as is the case in our area. I agree with MillyMollyMama, it does come down to leadership primarily and unless this changes, a school won't improve.
OP think hard about your DC's education, you only have the one chance to get this right. Having said which, with parental support and tutoring where necessary, all may not be lost at your allocated school.
We moved to ensure our DC's attend our chosen school, not the LA's - is this an option for you?

There are secondary schools near me which have bobbed in and out of Special Measures, Serious weaknesses and now RI since Ofsted inspections began. They are not completely useless when a new head takes over and the new broom gets to work, but they drift back again. One common feature is lack of high quality, constant, leadership and an inability to engage the best teachers, especially in maths and science and MFL. They simply do not want to work in these schools which are constantly on the cusp of RI when there are better led ones and grammar schools.

I've thought a great deal about this because my kids are in catchment for an RI school, not far from an outstanding school with a huge difference in results. I work in an RI school. The Ofsted rating system is hugely flawed, and too much rides on it, but it does give an indication of whether it's ok or not. There is no extra money or resources or support for RI schools, just stressed out teachers with more work because of endless 'restructuring' and more pointless paper work.

I've come to the conclusion that I will need to look at my child's individual needs and how well the school meets those needs. For example the breadth of curriculum, choice at gcse and availability of extra curricular stuff. Also, how happy are the staff and kids. Although it can change quite quickly, it's actually really important.

However, all of those things are negatively affected by being RI. A school in RI will do everything to improve results - narrow the choice, focus on key exam groups to the detriment of everything else, teachers are too busy doing unpaid tuition and revision classes to do anything fun like clubs or trips, shall I go on? But I'm not worried about my child's results, they will get good enough grades at gcse where ever they are. I'm worried about how they will feel about their education.

Not much help really. But I agree, you need to find out why it is RI, as well as visit as much as you can to judge how it feels.

I agree that it can take years to turn a school around. My children's primary school was in SM when they started and we were of the view (and were persuaded by a very good friend who was a head teacher) that loads of money and support would be thrown at it - well it might have been but we never saw any evidence of it. The whole time my children attended it was, frankly, rubbish. My son has ASD and, apart from one NQT, the support he had was utterly pathetic.
The only thing I would say positively about it was that my daughter was happy most of the time (although there was some bullying).

Now, the best part of twelve/thirteen years later, it is seen as one of the most desirable schools to get your child into.
But it took a good seven or eight years to get there.