What can parents realistically do about a badly performing school?

[Stevie77]

Background - state secondary, an academy, non-religious. This is a grammar school area, all other school are oversubscribed so it's impossible to get an out of catchment place.

School currently has 'requires improvement' OFSTED status, was previously on and off 'good' and 'requires improvement'. The areas that require improvement are quality of education and leadership and management. In 2022, an interim inspection raised issues that clearly weren't addressed by the 2023 full inspection. Headteacher has worked at the school for 20 years, left briefly, and returned to be appointed as head and has been in role for less than 5 years. So under the watch of the new head the school has an interim visit that highlighted areas for improvement, and these were either not addressed, or insufficiently addressed/improved on by the time the inspectors returned.

Is there anything parents can do, assuming you've no other school choices and you don't want your child being marked?

It's a tough one. My child was at a similar school except it was severely inadequate. Do you know many of the other parents who are willing to come together to force a meeting with head and governors and try to hold them accountable? We were in the process of this then went into covid. When Ofsted returned next time it was so awful that the head disappeared.

New head and they are working hard to turn around the school and they are doing well.

Is your DC at this school or have they just been allocated it?

My DC went to our local school which went from good to RI and is now good again (they have all left now tho). For much of their several years there (3 DC) it was RI. It was fine tho and there were many good things, like it was v local and all their schoolfriends were local too; plus there was lots of good or excellent teaching even tho it was RI overall.

If your child has been allocated this school, I suggest you make sure they do their best, and try to support them as best you can and as needed with their learning - I am thinking CGP KS3 books, facilitate their homework (provide laptop/advice/support), encourage things like BBC bitesize and any app-based learning they are given.

I would do all this personally before I did anything of bigger scope.

This sounds like a school around here. I’m wondering if it’s actually the one I’m thinking of.

With that particular school though I’m hearing via word of mouth fantastic things. It went from inadequate to requires improvement but they seem to be pumping lots of time, money and resources into to it to bring it up to standard. We nearly went to view it as people were hyping it up so much but didn’t in the end.

Have you spoken to any parents of the school you’re talking about? Sometimes it helps to give a more accurate picture of how the school is at this present moment.

Become a governor?

Become a governor and, or, supplement with tutoring for key subjects.

Nothing really. You can make complaints about specific things if you feel the school has done something wrong, but realistically parents have no power to change anything about a school. You could become a governor.

@Stevie77 the best thing you can do is support the school as much as possible, whether that be as a parent governor, a PTA committee member, or just an involved parent who supports your child and treats the teachers with respect and kindness (even when you feel frustrated with them).

All schools are struggling with recruitment currently, and underperforming schools are never going to be first choice for the best staff, so it's a vicious circle. However, rude, demanding and unconstructive parents who vexatiously undermine the teachers and school leadership team can only ever make things worse, not better.

Always talk your kids' school up, not down.

Is it the school or is it the catchment? Ofsted will always label the school with whatever- it's not an accurate judgement in reality. IF the school is full of children from homes where education isn't prioritised or there are unmet needs that the govt refuse to fund properly, and behaviour of the kids is off the wall/scale (it starts at home)...what can the school do? They are not miracle workers.

Sorry, life got in the way. Thank you for all your replies.

I think it's sad there's no mechanism to raise concern. I think it highlights some of the issues with academies. If it was under LA "control" there'd be somewhere to go to (If I understand processes correctly).

We're not at the school yet (yes, my child was allocated it), so I intend to be THAT parent next year and will be approaching governors to understand how school is addressing these issues. I can only run for parent governor if there is a vacancy, so not an option right now.

@Rocketpants50 I do know many of the parents, but I have found the majority of people are indifferent and just accept things for what they are.

@clary we would absolutely do all that, and more. We have done in the past, and with our older child. But I don't agree about not doing more - where does the line go from supporting your child if/when they're facing learning challenges, to carrying the burden of teaching because school is inadequate at that?

@BadgerHawk I have spoken to parents already with kids at the school. I think I'd describe it as somewhere on the Stockholm syndrome scale. Most are pretty positive, but I have a feeling the majority are pretty uninvolved and so as long as their child is doing okay enough that's fine for them.

@trumponomics not sure why you assumed all these things (about me?). Because I don't intend to just roll over and accept poor performance from teachers?

@Hatty999 it's definitely the school, this is a very affluent suburb of a large UK city. Yes, there'll be parents who fall into the categories of what you state above but only as much as anywhere else. Behaviour is good at the school. As I said, the areas RI re 'quality of teaching' and 'leadership and management', not behaviour.

There are other types of governor (trustee) as well as parent. If you are serious, email the chair. We are always happy to talk to potential trustees and can co-opt them onto the board. Trustees can’t change operational things but they can challenge improvement strategies and progress.

Governors have to support and challenge the school constructively. If you are "that" parent, they may not let you be a governor because, depending on how you engage, you may be proving yourself very unsuitable.

I suggested doing what I said before you look at doing more – kind of in response to a PP who suggested getting a group of parents together and approaching the head. I mean you could do that but I am not sure what kind of result you would get or hope to get.

If teachers are not great, that happens, sadly. My DC had some excellent teachers and some that were less good. I am sure that the head was aware of who was less good. There is a limit to what they could do tbh, especially considering the teacher recruitment issues. I’m not saying at all that a child should have to put up with poorer quality teaching and it’s not something I am happy about. But the reality is that schools are struggling to recruit in some subjects – maths, science, English, MFL, CS to name a few – and if they have a teacher who is qualified with a degree in the subject, even if they are not a very good teacher, it might be that that is the best person they can find.

It's awful, for sure, I don’t dispute. Enquire about becoming a governor. As far as how far you go to support your child, well that’s up to you and of course depends on a lot of external factors (money, engagement of child, your own ability and knowledge). Is it right that you might have to do it? No. Is it fair on those who don’t have the knowledge, money, skills to do it? No.

It's incredibly patronising to assume that parents who are generally positive about a school are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. It sounds like the school has some major issues but just as it's possible for an individual child to have a dreadful time in a school which is excellent on paper, so it is equally possible for a child to have a perfectly decent experience within a school which is struggling. The micro level can look very different to the macro. By all means be forewarned and forearmed but don't pre-judge the school and whatever you do don't let your child pick up on your negativity towards the institution.

I'm a governor of a good school, borderline outstanding. We have an effective performance management system for teaching quality, but it is not as effective as it used to be. Underperforming teachers can be put on support plans but, if they don't improve, then SLT have to balance the option of managing them out with the knowledge that, in some departments, they will be difficult to replace. What is better, an underperforming teacher, or no teacher? In the past we would have had several applicants for every role, but now that is becoming rarer. It must be so much more difficult for schools that already have a "requires improvement" label, because they are never going to attract the best applicants. To attract staff they may be putting inexperienced teachers into senior positions (we recently lost a first year ECT to a HoD role at a 'requires improvement' school, which was a pay rise and more responsibility for him, but not necessarily ideal for the students at that school).

"If it was under LA "control" there'd be somewhere to go to (If I understand processes correctly)."

No, you have not understood correctly. In both systems, the place to go is the same - the governing body.

A lot of well performing schools/teachers are propped up by parents paying for tutors.

So if you can, hunt for teachers in key subjects

But also don't panic. Our local school does well but I would estimate a third if not much more of children are being tutored in one or more subjects

Also, encourage your child to get into sensible hobbies. Nudge them towards a peer group who value learning

And yes, help fund and support the PTA

Think about that a v small % of teaching will have been seen. If you support your child make sure they do any homework, make sure they behave appropriately in school and pay attention in class then all should be OK. With tutoring being very expensive I would not use that route, but encourage looking at the wider aspects of some lessons maybe. Management issues you can do little about.

The problem with gathering parents together I found their issues were very different to my issues e.g. I wanted to know about the lack of progress in a subject whereas other issues were the lack of choice for food at lunchtime so it is hard even if you have a group of parents.

What I tried to do was speak to individual teachers where I could - try to put it positively and say my dd is struggling at this - how can we put in more support, what more can they be doing, can you recommend a book. Try to work with the school rather than against - though its hard at times!

Try also to have a good knowledge of what they are supposed to be learning, so my DD was taking geography and realised they hadn't covered the whole syllabus, and were due to sit their GCSE. I emailed the teacher and head of year with what they were missing and this proved useful. I think it is really tough on schools at the moment to recruit teachers and deal with so many issues.

It was obvious that if I had left it to the school she wouldn't have got good results - so we did spell it out to her that at the end of the day she needed to take ownership of her learning and if she wanted good grades then she needed to put in the work and not rely on the school. We did support her with this we got her a tutor and she signed up for lots of things online - and did very well! Whilst she moaned at the time about it - it has served her well as she is a very independent learner in her A levels.

Completely agree @Rocketpants50 . Ironically, my own child moved to a grammar school for sixth form. It gets stellar results, but he would say the teaching is much worse than at his comp. He is teaching himself a lot of the time because teachers either have such strong european accents he can't follow their explanations, or they are frequently absent (no cover provided in sixth form) or because they whizz through the content so quickly, knowing that their bright cohort will compensate. So even at that school he is very much learning how to learn independently. University will be the same, so the sooner he learns independence the better.

@trumponomics strangely my dd also went to grammar in sixth form. There seems to be a lot of turn to page x and read and answer questions and often has a lot of cover teachers. It has made her reflect about her high school experience and says that some of the teachers really tried to make lessons engaging, lots of debate and they worked really hard with a tricky cohort. She said grammar school is quite boring in comparison - though am not sure sometimes if she means the lessons or what they all got up to! They all seem to watch a lot of netflix and play cards at school in sixth form.

Academy’s are run like businesses and therein lies the problem in the first place. They will do anything to make it look like the grades are good but from a holistic point of view behind the scenes you have a lot of very unhappy young people. Often it’s the trust that is the issue and their way of doing things. You could try and become a school governer, but apart from that the state school system in this country is truly broken.

Disagree. You are just peddling a political line with this.

First hand experience of working in a state run academy so…disagree with you. Education is political.