ofsted indie special school reports

[alfieapple]

What would you think of a school that had at beginning of year was unsatisfactory but now is good?

Would you consider it for your child?

Independent special school that I'm considering for ds (ASD) : lots of great things, but bit worried about the Ofsted.

Any advice gratefully received.

I would dig deeper for a bit more history (older reports?), see if it's mentioned on any parent forums and so on.

And visit them with a long list of questions.

I don't know about indie schools, but a friend of mine's child is at a state school who was in "special measures" but within a year had turned itself around to "good". The LA had thrown a whole load of money at it and got in good head and good teachers. It worked.

I guess if money (where-ever that money comes from - presumably private money) is thrown at an indie school, something similar could happen.

Personally I would trust my own instincts rather than read an Ofsted report. My DS used to be at an "outstanding" school (including SEN provision) but the school did for him and drove his anxiety into overdrive and he learnt nothing. I had to home ed him for a year to sort out the damage this "outstanding" school did to him.

Personally, I would find out what areas were "unsatisfactory" and what the school did to make those areas to now be "good". I would also visit the school and see what gut-reaction and feeling it gives me.

I don't think OFSTED know a lot about SEN tbh.
Is it a new school? If so it can sometimes be excellent but just take time to tick all the OFSTED boxes - which often are less important than the things they are getting right.
Even in unsatisfactory schools SEN is sometimes the bit they are getting right.
And ask them what was unsatisfactory.
A lot of what OFSTED says is nonsense
For eg to get good rather than satisfactory / requires improvement rating now schools need to get a certain % of children to improve by three levels between 7 and 11. Because OFSTED has decided 2 levels is the target so just average, so to be good or outstanding schools have to be doing better than this and get % achieve three levels progress. Thats not too hard if you have alot of children at level 1 at age 7, you can get quite a few to level 4 by age 11. But if you live in an affluent area and have lots of children getting level 2 or 3 at age 7 its going to be much harder to get lots of them to level 5 or 6 by age 11. So then you can't be rated good…
Thats just one e.g. of how DS school had to argue its case with OFSTED because it doesn't believe in hothousing kids to do level 6 secondary curriculum it would rather turn out really rounded secure level 5's. But that meant it couldn't show lots of children who got level 3 now working at level 6 so risked being rated unsatisfactory

I don't know - I think some OFSTED teams, at least, are more on the ball than that with special schools. The nearby school recently awarded 4s down the line had serious safeguarding issues, wasn't recording incidents, was already struggling because a load of SLT and governors had to step down pending a serious fraud enquiry and in the classroom was often leaving kids twiddling their thumbs aka colouring in. Another one which was rated 3 overall was criticised for not encouraging KS3 to read and leaving older boys under-occupied and suffering behavioural problems as a result. I'd say they looked at pretty realistic issues.

And with the first school, the issue wasn't that kids weren't making 2-3 levels of progress per KS, but that they had no idea what progress was being made because there was little recorded evidence of assessment.

They certainly aren't going to be slating scools because children who finished KS1 on P levels aren't achieving level 3s by the end of KS2, because for many children who are that delayed in their learning, that sort of progress is genuinely unrealistic.

There is an "outstanding" SS in the LA and the comments about progress weren't that they achieved so many sublevels per year, but that progress was recorded and appropriate targets set.

Given unsatisfactory due to bullying and poor behaviour management. Ds has asd and I need him to feel safe. Enough bullying went on in his mainstream school. Kids not very tolerant of differences.

Good to hear some opinions.

Hi alfie, I reckon your best change of getting a proper understanding of how behaviour management works at the school is to get a spread of opinions from parents who have kids there.

If it's an indie day pupil SS, then I would guess that a fair number of parents would be pretty clued up and engaged with behavioural management issues and won't be fobbed off by a fancy Ofsted-complying jazz hands policy document Most parents with kids at indie SS will have thought long and hard about the placement, and will have had to fight someone to secure it - and sometimes, they will have had to fight to improve it. For my money, that usually makes them useful people to talk to. Definitely speak to several parents if you can though, just in case you get someone with an axe to grind or a friendship with the HT to protect.

If you don't know any parents who have kids there already, then ask the school if you can speak to some parents - if the school is reluctant to do this, then that in itself tells you something useful....

The Ofsted grade issue wouldn't worry me in the slightest - the quality of inspectors covering special schools varies massively, as you can tell from Agnes and ourvye's posts. It takes laughably little experience to be able to brand yourself as a 'specialist' Ofsted inspector - in most cases, you will have more worthwhile experience of assessing the quality of support for your kid's SEN than the Ofsted inspector who is trousering £300-500 per day for the privilege.

The last few Ofsted reports for your indie SS should name the inspectors on the first or second page. You can check to see whether these inspectors actually have any relevant and worthwhile professional expertise by clicking on the pen portraits at this link

Usually, if it's an HMI directly employed by Ofsted, they'll have some useful expertise. If it's an Additional Inspector (AI) employed by a private subcontractor, the chances are they won't have. Watch out for the clowns who describe themselves as a "specialist in SEN" - no-one with genuinely relevant experience in meeting your child's particular educational need would describe themselves that way. The "specialist in SEN" who inspected my DS1's provision turned out to have been a mainstream class teacher who could remember teaching one child with ASD and another child with moderate deafness when she last taught. Which was 15 years ago.