Buying a house where school isnt rated good?

duchy

We moved and my son started reception at the local primary school shortly after a disastrous OFSTD report- and the long time headmaster went off on sick leave and never returned.

By the time he left aged 11 it was the 2nd highest school in the area (no mean feat as it was a small school with one class per year so even one failing child affected the stats more noticably than in a larger school). The eleven plus results for my son's year were fantastic and all the children went on and did well both at school and uni (one even went to Cambridge)

My point is a school is as good as its leadership and even a year or two can transform a school for good or bad if the leadership changes so Ofsted whilst a useful tool is not the be all and end all.

BucksLady

How well schools perform seem to be reflected in local house prices. Unless you are able to afford to buy such a property, there may not be much choice, I fear.

Doozergirl

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Could you educate them privately?

Not even that. Neither of my children have gone to the catchment schools. It's perfectly easy to get places at other ones in this area.

ViolaLass

Being 3 out of 4 local schools isn't much info to go on - they might be the best 4 schools in the country or the worst four.

chelseablue

In our area most schools are over subscribed so you do really need to live in the catchment area.


Theres a house for sale near our preferred school but it's £50k over our budget.


Going to keep an eye on it and if it doesn't sell we might go in with an offer

Bee70

I would imagine that the ofsted rating will affect house prices for family homes in the area. However, I would consider any school - look round and see ehat YOU think. even an outstanding ofsted school could have serious flaws, or a satisfactory school has excellent points when you view it. If the school is in special measures, this can actually be a good thing as they get loads of money and support thrown at them.

bouicca21

Schools have lives. They change according to intake, the head, the staff ... Who knows what these schools will be like a few years time. And remember there is actually no research to back up the accuracy of OFSTED's judgements.

My children went to a school that was widely regarded as poor, just before OFSTED style inspections started. I visited and was impressed - head was relatively new and clearly intent on major improvements. He totally transformed the place. When OFSTED came several years later, they were impressed too.

tom9980

Example 1 - Outstanding rated high school in Wales. Wife's cousin is a bit odd we thought wife believed he had an SEN in her early training and encouraged her aunt to get him tested by the school. School refused and said he had attitude problems this despite him showing no signs of this outside of school at all. They even blamed the parents despite the fact his older brother sailed through school with top A grades and went to university. He is not academic so they sidelined him, lots of detention and he eventually was pulled out of that school to be home schooled. He was then tested and indeed has classic signs of autism as we long suspected, he is thriving now and everyone who works with him is more than happy with his abilities.

Example 2 - My wife's primary school was rated good in 2009 but 2013 results were poor, a snap inspection came in 2014 because of those results, Ofsted inspector later admitted he was expecting to put them in special measures. Those results were based on 11 children, 2 had severe SEN and didn't move onto high school. The rest of that year group were all below average or average the the very best academically, the years of having two severely disruptive children in the class also did not help staff improve and help them progress, they simply were too stretched. The school had documented everything and convinced the inspector they were outstanding BUT he could only give them good because of those results based on just 11 children.

ReadingTim

Anything can happen to the school in the 3 and a half years between now and when your child has to go there, so I wouldn't worry too much about what the last inspection said about the primary school. And in a decade's time, the secondary may not even exist any more.

Finally, if somewhere is rated 'outstanding' there's only one place to go from there - downwards.

silvercar

Brighty wrote: »

I'd be more worried if it was 'outstanding'.
Brighty

ReadingTim wrote: »

Finally, if somewhere is rated 'outstanding' there's only one place to go from there - downwards.

Who would think that people would avoid outstanding schools?

In my area there used to be 2 secondary schools. One was better than the other, so by statistics you would expect people to choose that one over the other. In practice they were both dire and people would send their children some distance to avoid them.