Catchment School is Inadequate - what can we do?

[NotAHappyBunnie]

Just trying to figure out DS’s secondary school application for next September and I was shocked to see that our catchment school is Inadequate AGAIN! DD went there previously and it was a disgrace. When she started there it was Good but went down to Inadequate when she was in Yr 10 due largely, I believe, to mismanagement of funds by the Head at the time. There was a lot of disruption in Yr11.

It was taken over by a new Head and turned into an academy and it turned around to Good but it seems that she left 3 years ago and earlier this year it had a damning Ofsted report, again Inadequate, with mention of reports of bullying not being logged or dealt with, bad behaviour disrupting lessons so learning is affected, teachers not running orderly classes, kids not feeling safe or feeling that they can trust teachers, kids being behind in core subjects, high staff turnover, 3 Heads in the last 3 years, It’s horrendous!

It seems the academy trust withdrew a lot of funding and support as they experienced financial difficulties. The LA had threatened to withdraw funding.

I know very well that I won’t get DS in any of the other schools in the area. They are already over subscribed and everyone in my area will be applying too so they don’t have to send their DC to our catchment school.

I’m pretty terrified for DS, who is very studious and well behaved but has been a magnet for bullies previously.

What reassurances can I get from the school and how realistic is it that the stuff in Ofsted report will be acted on before next September? What can I ask?

Any ideas?

I would still list the others first. You never know. Also if you do get the one in your catchment you can still put your dc on the waiting list for one you want, you might have to wait until after the year starts to do that but it is an option.

You need to investigate the admissions requirements at other schools. Don’t just assume you cannot get in. Where do other schools take DC from? Out of catchment? What are any other criteria? The LA will have info on previous admissions on their web site. Read about alternative schools carefully so see if you have a shout of getting in elsewhere.

Regarding inadequate: it would be unusual to improve so quickly. Inadequate is the worst category and a lot will be wrong. I can see that it’s a basket case. Getting teaching to improve and increasing the progress made by DC never happens in one year. Often there is turmoil as the improvement plan is implemented. And by whom will it be implemented? The existing SLT who didn’t improve it? Or a parachuted in SLT? Most observers know changes take 2 years and it’s hard.

Could you move? Sounds drastic but what you describe is awful.

By the way LAs cannot withdraw funding. It’s not legal to do that and funds are paid to schools via a formula. Neither will financial issues alone mean a school is inadequate. Ofsted will look at the education the DC are receiving. However SLT and governors are held to account. You have been served very Poorly by the school and the academy chain.

In most areas it's the distance between your home and the school that's the most important factor, not whether or not the school is your catchment one.
Other schools may be oversubscribed but it's still possible in may cases to obtain a place at a different school.
For my LEA there was a school finder type service on the council website where if you put in your postcode it gave a distance to all your closest secondary schools.
There was also lots of information about what distances away pupils given places there lived.
If you live in a city there may be rural schools a bit further away that are undersubscribed and have places available too. You can apply to schools in different LEAs using your city's application form. All you do is list the name of the school and the LEA.
School funding is linked to pupil numbers so if they go down, the funding will as well if that's what you mean.

Local authorities can't withdraw funding from schools because they don't make the decisions or allocate funding. They do have the responsibility for sorting out admissions, although within that schools which are part of an academy trust, church schools or both, miay have criteria of their own. An academy chain will be funded by the DFE.

Schools with poor OFSTED reports will struggle as if they don't fill all avaialble places they won't have funds for staff salaries, building and equipment costs etc. Sometimes schools with Good OFSTED reports struggle if they're up against others that are rated outstanding and/or in wealthier areas and attract kids from more middle class families..

Have you looked at the distances and other criteria used by other possible schools to allocate places? You may be near more than one by distance.

Thanks all.

I feel like a complete idiot now!

I tried the school finder that catndog kindly mentioned and that school is not our catchment school! In fact it is not listed at all in the list of schools. I’ve even checked by putting in postcodes for streets right next to it and it doesn’t come up. Could the LEA have suspended admissions? The first school that comes up is a school 3 miles away.

The school I was worried about less than a mile mile away and was catchment for DD 10 years ago. We live two streets up from where we lived then.

What a relief! (Can change my username).

You say it is an academy from which the academy trust has withdrawn support. Is it still open? What do you find about its current status if you google its name? What does its website say about admissions?

It is unlikely that the school has closed. You need to look at their website to see exactly what the situation is.
I would look very carefully at the admission criteria both for the school you do not want and the schools you do want. It is quite possible that they are different, especially if schools are now academies. In many case academies will not have a formal catchment zone or be a catchment school being more likely to be based on distance from home to school.
That may well mean that the school you are most likely to be allocated is in fact the school you do not want. You need to carry out more investigation and then select your preferences for secondary school based on factual information. I think that you would be well advised to put down this school you do not want as your last preference because a relatively local school is better than an equally poor school a long way away, which is what will be allocated if you are no allocated any of your preferences.
In terms of finances, there is an LA funding formula which will allocate funding based on the funding scheme, so that all schools in the LA will get the same equivalent funding, which is approximately 75% based on pupils numbers. There is no effective funding difference between academies and maintained schools other then the funding for academies comes via the ESFA, which is part of the DfE. It is however quite usual for each academy in a multi-academy trust to pay a level of funding (typically 5%) to the central office of the MAT. The central office then use the amalgamated funding across the MAT, where it is most useful. As a school that is inadequate, I would be confident that they were seeing their fare share of the central funding being used in the school.

Unfortunately higher funding isn’t always the answer to poorly performing schools. It’s more to do with spending any extra funds wisely and ensuring that the children benefit and the weaknesses are put right. Sometimes it’s not money that makes it happen. It’s inspirational leadership. However do check what has happened to this school.

Is there a Secondary Schools Admission booklet for your LEA. it can usually be downloaded from the council website?
That should list all the schools in your area.
Schools do sometimes close and pupils are transferred elsewhere, but it's rare. There would need to be sufficient notice for this to happen. There would be articles in the local press that should be searchable on-line about this.