school in Special Measures

Filey

My granddaughter's secondary school is to to be put under Special Measures. I assume this means it is unsatisfactory in some way. Has anyone any knowledge about this, or experience of it at their child's school?

My granddaughter is about to start her 2 pre GCSE years so I worry that although the school will eventually be cured of whatever ails it, it may be a bit late for my granddaughter. Her mother is thinking about looking for a school that is already good at what it does now rather than in the future.

And looking at the Ofsted reports I see that it was rated 'satisfactory' in 2010 which I am coming to think is a euphemism for 'just getting by but really should do better'.

Can anyone offer any info about Special Measures?

Person_one

They'll probably sack the head, the senior team and any staff judged to be unsatisfactory and parachute in a 'superhead'.

I wouldn't worry too much, the worst will be over and the school will probably start to improve pretty rapidly.

wendym

My daughter, Deputy Head at an Ofsted 'outstanding' school, is currently mentoring a school that just escaped 'special measures' having been given 'notice to improve' (these are all Ofsted terms) and she will be expected to have an effect pretty quickly.

milliebear00001

How it affects your daughter is what you are concerned about. Has she had a good experience of the school so far? Is she on target to make good grade in her exams etc? How does she find the school day to day - is she happy there?

Do you know the reason for the special measures? It's unusual to go straight into SM - usually schools are put on 'Notice to Improve' first, where they get a few months to make enough changes to avoid SM. Often SM is a result of an inspection, but this might have been triggered by a complaint as it's very soon after their last inspection in 2010.

Essentially, it might be a good thing for your GD, as it means other people will be brought in to intervene in the school's problems. It will be very demoralising for the staff (and possibly pupils/parents if they know) though, and obviously, that alone can have a significant impact on the quality of teaching.

flopsypurple

Hi my dd secondary school went from being outstanding straight into special measures, This was the best thing that ofsted could have done as parents we had concerns over the new head teacher and dicepline ect. Ther headteacher got sacked new executive head came in from another school in the diocese. For my dd it has been brilliant this happened when she was in y7 shes now in y9 and things have inproved greatly even being taken out of special measures within 1 yr. Once the school is in special measures it means action can be taken to get rid of the deadwood within the staff.

Jo_F

We had around 7 schools in the area, along came the 'Building Schools for the Future' programe and they created 5 new schools (all with shiny new buildings in the end), by the end of the first year 3 of the 5 were in special measures, by the end of the 2nd year all were in special measures.

Most of it was down to the schools being in temporay buildings, living out of cardboard boxes etc, plus some of the schools had been merged, the disruption obviously had an effect on the kids and the staff.

All are now in their shiny new buildings and all are out of special measures, sometimes it can be just the kick in the butt that a school needs, sometimes it also brings to them the help that they need at that time.

We never lost faith in the head at my kids' school, we knew they were all doing the best they could with what they had, it was just a case of riding it out and hoping for a better result at each inspection. Saying that, it was too much for the head and he resigned, a new head was brought in and really did do wonders with the school.

pinkshoes

Being in special measures means it's probably a good school to be in, as it's about to get lots of extra attention to bring it up to scratch!

I wouldn't worry about it.

susancs

pinkshoes wrote: »

Being in special measures means it's probably a good school to be in, as it's about to get lots of extra attention to bring it up to scratch!

I wouldn't worry about it.

I agree with the other posters that the school will quickly turn around as they will get a lot of support from the local education authority to ensure it is turned around quickly. The school will be monitored and mentors sent in to support the school. The school also gets extra funding.

rosalie-lavender

When my eldest started at Secondary school, the school he was attending had just been put into special measures. He left with very good GCSE exam results of mostly A*s and A's and has gone on to study physics at a good university. His brother and sister followed him into the same school and both have done well too.

I agree with the others that the school will be given help to improve and it could be a good thing.

I have also worked in a school that was put into special measures and have seen how suddenly money was forthcoming for repairs and building works that I know the previous head had been asking for and getting no-where.

heartbreak_star

I've been hearing a lot of this...generally in my area it seems to be the private/religious "academies" that are getting all the flak, which is about right in my book...nobody that blinkered should be teaching the next generation.

FWIW, I totally agree with pinkshoes - there will be a lot of excellent work done on this school in the near future so your daughter is likely to get some very good teaching soon

HBS x

Filey

Many thanks to all those who replied. Lots of helpful info there.

However yesterday I spoke to the head of year and it turns out to be just a rumour, but in the light of what posters have said it might have been a good thing if it had gone into SM as looking at the league tables it has one of the lowest GCSE achievement records in the area.

He said (I think) that under the Govt regulations if a school gets 3 consecutive 'satisfactory' reports it will be put under SM, and they have already had 2!

So we are still considering whether to change schools. Decisions, decisions. (sigh)