School Ofsted Reports Post Reply

[livegreen]

Had dinner last night with a senior Ofsted official and this report came up as did the changing criteria Ofsted use to judge schools.
A couple of points is that Ofsted use data, and in particular progress of children, a lot more now and often have a grade in their head before they arrive at the school, they then find evidence to back up the grade. The data provided will indicate if a school has relaxed too much or is not keeping data correctly - this would lead to a requires improvement in most cases.
The new Ofsted criteria is much tougher and most schools will drop at least a grade with new criteria compared to old (unless of course they have improved).
The inspectors have been told only to give an outstanding where everything is outstanding and there is a lot of data(again) to back up progress over every year group over a couple of years - so really difficult for schools which have improved quickly, have new head teacher, or are new schools to get an outstanding grade.
Her advice was the same that many people have given here, visit the school, talk to the parents, read the Ofsted report (bearing in mind when inspection took place), talk to the teachers and read Parent View.
Her feeling on schools similar to Ravenestone was that this could be the wake up call they need and that they can quickly return to good/outstanding with correct leadership.

[headshrinker]

Hi Mungomuffit, they are waiting on the follow-up report now. Not sure if visit has taken place but there were some LEA people in last week. I spoke to Alan Millington at the parents evening and my other half has been on his case on email (he has been responding). I would recommend that you talk to him if you want to know anything specific as he is very open to this. They have put all sorts of new ideas in place to address the problems in the report. There was definitely a huge issue with the Governors who seemed not to fully understand their role. Think they have got the message now though! For now though we should know more once the progress report comes in.

[headshrinker]

Fair enough. Are you going private or to another local state school? Just curious... If you are in Ravenstone catchment area and aren't catholic it doesn't seem like the alternative state schools are much better. Ravenstone is full of kids whose parents have moved them there from those very schools. Quite interested in where people want to go if they don't want to stay.

[livegreen]

Mungo. Interesting that your child got into a selective prep after going to ravenstone where his education was not deemed good enough. Did you tutor like crazy or not at all? Or is the reality that it's not that hard to get into these "selective" schools if the parents are the right profile? Just curious as a lot of the talk/worries on around schooling seem misplaced.
My own impression of Selective Preps is that it tells all it's selective but it's only selective in that it does not allow entry to SEN children, children with behavioural, learning issues etc but I guess quite a few are happy to pay for this type of segregation in our area. Perhaps the school could tell us what they mean by selective at the age of 5 and 7 as it cannot be academically selective at that age - who are they trying to weed out and why?

[livegreen]

So it's not a selective school academically and you can get in if you perform badly in the tests - so what are the tests for? What does the school say?

[livegreen]

Sorry Mungo but unfortunately you cannot select academically at 5 or 7 as children's brains are not fully formed. Additionally at such young age all develop at different rates. There is now medical evidence that cognitive ability is not fully formed until around 13.
Are you saying they made a special case for him because of his background ? I am genuinely interested as to what the selective preps are selecting on as it's not clear from their websites. They are obviously giving the impression it's academic selection when the head knows it's not possible. Most successful school systems begin formal schooling at around 7 and some of our schools are claiming to select academically at this age - nonsense.

[ready2pop]

Livegreen my godmother runs a very sought after prep in west london and echoes what you said. However, she says whilst you can't determine academic ability as such at 5, they look for confidence, inquisitiveness, eagerness to learn and eloquence. Doesn't guarantee these kids will be future geniuses but does give a slight head start as they adapt to the school environment very readily.

[Medway]

MM, Is the school you have chosen in the local area? I have a friend who is moving back to the UK after some time abroad and her kids will be re-entering the school system in Year 2, it is reassuring to hear that private schools will have space/ will take into consideration their different academic background.

[Nowforthetruth]

Hi Mungomuffit, they are waiting on the follow-up report now. Not sure if visit has taken place but there were some LEA people in last week.

From what we parents have heard from our children, they had a visit from inspectors. The little ones were told to be on their best behaviour prior to being questioned by the inspectors/LEA. While the "disruptive" children were removed from the class before the visit.

[papinian]

From what we parents have heard from our children, they had a visit from inspectors. The little ones were told to be on their best behaviour prior to being questioned by the inspectors/LEA. While the "disruptive" children were removed from the class before the visit.

This is shocking if true.

[Nowforthetruth]

From what we parents have heard from our children, they had a visit from inspectors. The little ones were told to be on their best behaviour prior to being questioned by the inspectors/LEA. While the "disruptive" children were removed from the class before the visit.

This is shocking if true.

Papinian if you know any children studying within the school, ask them. Ask anyone with children within the school.

[livegreen]

Annabel - thanks for creating this and separating from other thread.

I would add and emphasise that parents should only use OFSTED reports as part of their decision on a school. For example Ofsted is not interested on whether a school provides extra curriculum opportunities, sporting opportunity, music, drama in the curriculum, whether there is an active parent community, PTA, parents helping around the school and raising money, school taking part in inter school competitions, putting on plays and exciting assemblies etc. Ofsted will nod their head at the above activities which most parents would base their school choice on BUT Ofsted's new criteria does not take any of these into consideration - they are focused on data and what it tells them on whether the school is hitting targets.

That said the data may well reveal that the school is not doing as well as it could and should, and as a result Ofsted reports that, quite rightly, the school needs to improve.

Another item Ofsted are very hot on at the moment is how pupil premium is spent and whether the school can prove the money is reducing the gap in achievement between those pupils on FSM and those not. This may not concern a parent, but it is an Ofsted key performance indicator.

[supergirl]

@MM: Can you please send a link to the league tables? I am on the DoE website and can't find them...

[Geegee007]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/le ... mance.html

[Cronut]

Morning all!

Ok so can someone explain the following to me re the results on the recent league tables.

How is it that with all the discussion on this thread and the other on private tutoring around KS2 time, why is it that some of the local Balham Schools have seen their results fall from the previous year, Fircroft 10%, Ravenstone 11% and TSM 16%...what am I missing here- surely the results should be getting better or staying within the same level?