Panicking, offsted inadequate, jump ship?

[schoolingangst]

DD is about to start year 10. Her school has just been rated inadequate in 3 areas, requiring improvement in 1. I wasn't too worried until I got her report. She has always been at or beyond the recommended grade, (except maths - don't mention maths) but I hadn't appreciated how much she has fallen behind in the last 1-2 years. Despite this she remains top set in everything (except maths!) and consistently gets excellent for behavior and effort.

I could afford to move her to a fee-paying school (just) - if I can get her in last minute. She won't want to, because she has her friends and takes advantage of lots of the extra curricular clubs at the current school.

Current school head teacher has been in post 2 years and was brought in to improve the school (having "turned around" a previous school). But how long would results take? DD is starting gcses - a better school in 1-2 years won't help her.

(If anyone wonders, DD didn't sit eleven plus for unrelated reasons).

Thoughts? Please - I'm so worried trying to figure what's best for her. Thanks

I’d leave her where she is. Moving her at this stage is risky. The school will now torture the staff so most of the staff will be on their toes. I’ve worked in a supposedly inadequate school locally and the teaching and marking was much better than in other supposedly ‘good’ schools.

What does your DD think about the standard of education she is receiving? Lots of supply teachers? Poor behaviour? Poor teaching?

If she is ambitious and wants to do well and head onto A-levels, I'd move her and not risk it. Inadequate in 3 areas is dire, particularly if the head was supposed to turn the school around. That suggests there are no quick fixes. There's also likely to be an exodus of staff.

Yes, have they kept most of their staff? I'd expect to see many leaving. If they're inadequate have they had to join a trust, as this can help.
It depends. I've worked in a school like this and the pressure was on us as staff to perform. However, we had so much supply and poor behaviour due to great staff turnover, which meant we got to the point that supply staff refused to come... I was teaching 3 different GCSE subjects at one point. I wouldn't have sent my child there.

Large number of staff just left. Supposedly all replaced (with permanent, not just agency).

Lots of supply teachers? Check. Or at least a fair few. Eg one subject has had 3 teachers in the last year (the last being agency and a bit of a twat)

Poor behaviour? Yes. Endless stories of "you won't believe what x did today". Occasional bullying of DD, teachers won't help (teachers not assisting when kids bullied was mentioned by offsted and is certainly our experience). However DDs worst bully bullied the wrong girl and got punched in the face, and decided to be nicer after that.

Poor teaching? Suspected from DDs "tales" where she says what happened that day and I'm just speechless. However I'm also aware I may get an exaggerated or misunderstood retelling!

If she really doesn’t want to move you could pay for tutoring in most subjects.

Poor teaching? Suspected from DDs "tales" where she says what happened that day and I'm just speechless. However I'm also aware I may get an exaggerated or misunderstood retelling!

Probably not, given the Ofsted.

Just asked what DD thinks about the teaching and summary would be mixed depending on teacher.

As an example, she says she doesn't understand the point of English lessons. They have to read 1 chapter per lesson but the book (Heroes?) is so short she could read it in 1 night. They don't get taught any grammar / English language etc - for half a term they watched a couple of 20 minute videos about grammar but nothing before or since. She is a keen & fairy accomplished reader, and in top set English. She said most tests are really boring ("tick which of these 2 sentences are correct")

What are her predicted grades? I would move her - some children at my sons school moved in Yr10, it's not ideal but they all settle and enjoy it. If the private school think they can make it work then go for it. What about 6th form?

If you care about her education then it sounds like you should move her and you're lucky to have the option, really.

Did you never look at her books to see what she was doing?

And yes, I'd move her.

I think inadequate in 3 different areas suggests the school is in chaos and I'd be removing her pretty quickly.

What sort of grades is she predicted? Private schools may not want to take her if she has poor grades.
Having said that, lots of kids join and leave in private schools over the time so it wouldn't be usual to have her join at year 10.
Most of them will have broken up for the summer now so you need to get a move on if you are going to try and get her in. Do you have a particular school in mind?

Fwiw a change of staff a year or two into a new headship is not unusual. Established practices get challenged and changes made with which some will not be happy. It does seem late to try to get into private and may mean she has to change gcse options and friendships.

Do the areas rated poorly affect your child?
For example, if they have a high level of absenteeism, and poor follow up for that, you can ignore for your child.
If it is substandard teaching income subjects at KS4, you need to be more wary.

Check prefered subjects can be timetabled at any new school.

The alternative use for the money that could be spent on school fees is tutors and/or revision books and courses.

I think I recognise the school ( my username may be a clue). I would say money will be thrown at the school and I am sure it will improve. But your daughter is at a critical age, you don't have time to play with. The existing head has had two years and has been less affected by COVID than other schools so this indicates the changes are longer term. I'd seriously look at moving (but I'd think Catholic)

It depends.
Look at the actually report not just the grade. Does what they say effect your dd? (eg if they say they don't stretch the top, but your dc is middle, then it's less worrying than if they say middle underachieved because they ignore them)

Also what's the reaction of the school? "We were already aware these were potential issues and were putting in place things to deal with them", is a better reaction than "it's not fair, we're absolutely fine and it was just Ofsted being mean".

I've seen bad Ofsted reports where I've thought, yes, not good, but actually I think it's a positive thing overall because they're now getting support for what needs help, and then I've seen ones that I've wondered why they have any pupils left!

And the reaction of the school is a huge thing. If they're using it as a kick up the backside to get things moving that's very different to putting all their energy into fighting it.

For one bad Ofsted I saw, the school just put all their effort into presenting a "everyone's just being mean to us" side. The governors told everyone they'd resigned in protest at the bad report (but kept on fighting it), and the head went on long term sick leave due to stress because of it. That was the official line. If you actually looked into it, both were removed due to incompetence (and rightfully so because some of the issues had been building for years).
My friend (who showed me it) swallowed the official line for nearly a year. In that year one of her dc hadn't had a form teacher and hadn't even had a supply teacher stay for more than 2 weeks and the other dc's form was mixed with a younger one (as they didn't have enough pupils) and they basically left the older children to do what they wanted. At that point she realised that the report wasn't just being mean and moved her dc too.
They had the dreadful report in 2014, were still requires improvement in 2018, and have recently achieved good. So it's taken over 6 years (ignoring lockdown) which is the life of a child in the school.
Whereas another local school who had a dreadful Ofsted at a similar time, but put everything into sorting the issues and by the end of a year got a "good" and they continued to improve rapidly, and now are quite a popular school.

So ime the attitude of the school plays a huge part.

However year 10 is not the time to play about with it. If it were my child, then I would be looking at removing them, simply that you don't have a year to wait and see if they improve because moving in year 10/11 is difficult.

@facelikeanormer - correct, and the reason I've name changed :D

A certain catholic school would actually be my first choice and they have an enquiry waiting in their inbox.

I will add the school reaction seems excellent and promising ... but I don't know how much can be changed NOW as oppose to "in the next year to 2 years". No timeframes for seeing improvement have been mentioned.

The school reaction should have happened 2 years ago though, shouldn't it?

I have also guessed the school. Shows the perils of not inspecting "Outstanding" schools for a (very) long time.
The time frames for school improvement will be in an action plan. The most urgent ones to address are those that are inadequate and then those that require improvement. Note requires improvement used to mean "satisfactory".
I would move a Y10 child, but probably wouldn't move one in Y7 or Y8.
When my dds primary school was rated inadequate (end of Y1) there was noticeable improvement within 2 years. But there were a lot of changes including replacing the Head.