DS will probably have to go to a school in ‘special measures’. WWYD?

[DemiBourbon]

We have been living in our current home for 15 years and DS attends a good, local, non-academy primary. DS is due to start year 11 in 2022 so we have to apply in October year.

The local secondary school (an academy) has recently changed the admissions criteria to favour primary schools run by the same academy. This means that DS will definitely not get into this secondary now.

All other schools within the area either ‘require improvement’ or are in special measures. However, this doesn’t really matter as we are outside their catchment areas anyway, so unlikely he’d get a place. He would be bumped to a school 4 miles away which is also currently in special measures. This school is very undersubscribed and only 18% of the pupils achieve good grades in their GCSEs. I believe the behaviour of pupils has improved slightly but still not good.

We live about 4 miles from a better school and have been looking at moving to that area but all we would be able to afford to buy would be the type of house where the owner he passed away and there is no central heating/kitchen and bathroom not really serviceable. We would definitely not have the money to renovate.

So our 2 options are:

Move into a house as described above in time to apply in October

Or:

Stay where we are, let DS attend special measures school and try to pay for a tutor to bring him up to speed.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or had children start at a school which is already in special measures?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you everyone. These answers are mirroring my own thoughts, going back wards and forward from moving to, well surely this school will have improved by the time he goes there. I suppose if he did end up there we could always put him on the waiting list for the better school and hope a place comes up and no one else on the waiting list lives nearer than us etc. It’s a near 300 child intake so I assume some might move during the school year.

@FTMF30 that would be ideal but we would have to live within a mile of the school to get a place.

@inquietant we are not encouraging this. I think you would have had to have seen his reaction when we discussed moving to be able to judge whether my description is ‘too strong’.

You can’t just tutor to success. It’s the peer group, friends, behaviour, disruption in school and low expectations.

I’d do anything to move.

I would move. How long has it been in special measures? I recently worked in a school in special measures and which has been so for over 3 years despite super heads etc coming in. I wouldn't send my son there for anything.

I think the school might be OK, and moving doesn't have enough plus points for you. Save the moving money for tutors and tell your son that you expect him to maintain high standards of behaviour and work and to choose his friends wisely, and that if it's not working out you will likely be moving (before year 10).

Op the import thing is the catchment, so the pupils he will be mixing with, and why it's in special measures.you need to see the report na dmeet the scho.
So if it's in special measures as it's failing on SEN needs and your child isn't SEN then you shouldn't overly worry (although it sobv shit) . If its failing maths and English at basic provision levels then worry!!
Also age of the report matters if its 3 years ago and heads changed and there have been amazing things since then less worrying than if same errors are still there. You need to do some reasurch

@Insertfunnyname

You can’t just tutor to success. It’s the peer group, friends, behaviour, disruption in school and low expectations.

I’d do anything to move.

I agree with this. I also think it would be more difficult for you son to move later on once friendships have been established, and trying to fit in at a new school isn't always easy.

I think there may be another option?

Can you move primary school? This is what we did with Dd to ensure we got her into the secondary school she wanted to go to which had a similar system of favouring a number of primary schools.

@ScrapThatThen @Pleaseaddcaffine it converted to an academy in 2016 and went into special measures in early 2019. I have reread the monitoring report from late 2019 and, having read monitoring reports for all the local special measures/require improvement schools, it is very positive. It mentions less disruption in classes, low bullying and better attendance (although this is still low). From what I can gather quite a few teachers have left and they have replaced them with double the amount of new teachers (obviously can’t tell at this point if they will be any better).

The exec head is now spending more time at that school and they have brought in subject specific help from the other, good school within the trust. There were improvements in exam grades within the first year.

Having read the reports on the other schools, none of them improved and some actually worsened.

Does this sound positive? Or is this what happens and then the school stays at a certain level?

Because of the situation at the moment it’s not possible to physically visit the schools, all of their open days have been cancelled. It’s really important that DS likes the ‘feel’ of any school he goes to but it might not be possible to see them in person before the application deadline.

Hopefully the open day ban will be lifted by the autumn. Then just go to all the schools in your area and try and get a feel.

Sounds like it's improving though.

The thing I struggle with when everyone says move is that in my area it gives no guarantees, we are 0.3 miles from one of the top performing state schools in the country but are extremely unlikely to get in due to over subscription, by the time they meet sibling and other requirements there's not much left. We're lucky we have other good schools in the area but does annoy me I'm going to have to pay £600 a year for a bus when they could walk down the road to school. So I'd thoroughly research chances of getting in before doing anything drastic.

@DemiBourbon

Because of the situation at the moment it’s not possible to physically visit the schools, all of their open days have been cancelled. It’s really important that DS likes the ‘feel’ of any school he goes to but it might not be possible to see them in person before the application deadline.

My son went to a school that wasn't even special measure but not a good school (as it turned out). He started with a glowing, excited face first, then his face was more and more sad coming home as months went by. (By December I definitely saw a change.) It turns out he was bullied, despite going there with friends. We moved and I'm so glad we did. We had to downsize house and garden (ok, we do have central heating) but it was worth it. Are there any flats in the better area?

@DemiBourbon

I really feel for you and I would understand you doing anything to find a place at a good school. However, I can offer some minor reassurance

The school is in special measures so a lot more scrutiny and return OFSTED support. I have recently been brought in as a governor at such a school to shore up the governing body as the inspection found that governance was inadequate.

As it is judged inadequate it will be forced to academise. That process will take some time and the norm is that the governing body be replaced with an interim executive board. Is some cases the governing body is retained but shored up as happened in my case.

What I have seen is that we have had external leadership brought in from an academy chain. It is brilliant and they have been appalled at what they have found (the LA should be ashamed of themselves for allowing it to happen previously). What I have seen in months is a real turn around in behaviours, performance and building resilience and capacity. However, the local community don't see it yet as they are still deemed inadequate but the temp head who has a lot of experience of turning around failing schools is confident they would be judged as good in normal post Covid times and within another year they could have it as outstanding.

I'm afraid some teachers on here won't like that a factor in this school was a militant trade union official that did their best to frustrate any assessment of staff and the quality of lessons, constantly demanded meetings with the previous head and basically spent their time seeing it as a campaign to disrupt the effective running of the school. The new temp head is very confident and had been able to confront the issues with said union and is dealing with the issue of poorly performing staff who are either improving and seeing the need to, or have left.

How ‘clever’ is he OP? DD went to a school in special measures that is probably one of the worst in the country, if I remember correctly it was something like only 20% of students left with 5 GCSEs. We couldn’t move because we just had absolutely no money. But we are very lucky that DD is very naturally clever and I do think that this goes a long way with GCSEs (not with A-Levels - definitely get him somewhere good for those!). She left with all A* and A grades, she did have a tutor for Maths but only because she really wanted an A not because she was going to fail if you see what I mean. Her friends who were similarly hardworking and lucky to have encouraging parents also got pretty good grades.

Not that I’m saying this means ‘go for it he’ll be fine!’ More that I’m saying it may not be the end of the world if he’s a gifted lad already and you are ready to support and push him if no teachers are. DD is now an adult and often says she is so glad she went to the rubbish school because it taught her she had to work really hard for herself. She also had various scholarship and access schemes available to her when she was applying to uni because she’s been to a bad secondary school.

It depends on how well the academy / Mat is run. I'd the Mat is shit, they won't have resources or skills to support the short term support they get. Ours was in special measures 3 years ago and it is falling apart. Lots of spaces as no one wants to send their kids there so they get 3rd choice pupils or pupils whose families don't give a fuck / dumping ground for behaviour issues.

Significantly, had last years Gcses been based an the algorithm system, all pupils would have had predicted grades dropped by 2 or 3 grades. The work is there, but they are tainted by the rxisti g reputation of the school and historic results. Worth bearing that in mind.

When you're allowed go visit and see what you think.

The good thing is that all the staff will be doing everything they can to turn this around. It could be the best time for your ds to start. Money will be thrown at the school, extra training will be given and a new leadership team including an executive head may be appointed. There may well be a high staff turnover for a while but if the new practises put into place are successful it should settle.

Some outstanding schools are just coasting as pp have mentioned and this school certainly won't be doing that for the next few years.

I went to one of the better regarded secondary schools to avoid going to the “special measures” one round the corner from me

My school was absolutely shit, crap teachers and so many troubled children who got 0 support
the local school that had a bad reputation ended up being brilliant and even my own mum said she wishes she’d have sent me there

I'd want to know why it's in special measures. I wouldn't assume any school with a good or outstanding rating actually is what Ofsted have decided. There is an outstanding rated school near me which is always undersubscribed: whatever made Ofsted think it outstanding, local families do not agree.

As PP have said, is there a plan in place to improve it and how far into the plan are they? Our local secondary was put into special measures a few years back, had resource thrown at it and is now the best in the area. Another local one hasn't yet got itself out of special measures. Which is the likely outcome with this school?

This is reason we paid for private. The area we lived in at the time was shite and so were the schools.

If I could have moved instead I would have.

I’d move. I wouldn’t tell him until you find abs buy a house but just move.
We used to live in an area where both secondary schools in the area were both in special measures. I taught in one of them. Most staff were off with stress at one time or another and although change was possible it wasn’t going to happen in the 5 years my children were there.

We moved 300 miles away both mine were at outstanding schools. The youngest was easy as they had a place for him - fine. The eldest was going in year 9 and it was full and had a waiting list but they got in due to gp letter etc (physical disability) and anxiety etc both children happy.

If he doesn't like change, where are all his friends going?

Surely that would be the most important consideration.

We have applied for a place at an academy school (albeit it only a small academy group) outside our catchment area because our local schools a)don't have sixth forms, a big red flag for teaching standards b)GCSE grades are what I'd call poor c)the range of subjects on offer locally are much more limited. So if we get in, ds will likely only be with a handful of people he knows but I feel academically the school will suit him better and he will I'm sure make new friends. We live somewhere with low academic ambition so it was important to us to find somewhere he won't slip into that mindset. Being an academy, the school admissions are run by our local council but they can basically choose who they want. I would contact the academy admissions person and start asking questions about subjects, GCSE options and start making the case for your child.

@TheSmallAssassin

I thought, generally if a school was in special measures you'd get a new head parachuted in and the school given a good shake up? Your son might benefit in that case from a school which has the spotlight on it?

I agree, schools in special measures can be (a lot) better than those which are just staying out of special measures.

@Floridaflipflops

This is reason we paid for private. The area we lived in at the time was shite and so were the schools.

If I could have moved instead I would have.

In our case going Private worked out cheaper than moving , and we would have had to downsize