Renting near a good school

LandyAndy

My wife is an OFSTED inspector. The entre framework for OFSTED inspections changed recently and many schools have had heavily revised ratings following inspections under the new framework. An 'outstanding' rating from 2013 is almost meaningless today, about as much use as the MoT pass your car got in 2013.

DCFC79

Shes much better off visiting the schools herself, afterall it would be her kids going to said school.

tom9980

I will add that near my wife's school is a private school, it is not uncommon for pupils to start at her primary school for the first few years then move to the private school so parents can save a bit of money.

The difference is that the parents of the private school have higher expectations of their children and smaller class sizes, the teaching practices of the private school are outdated in comparison. Above all the children do better because its expected and of course the old boys club connections are helpful.

I wouldn't be basing an opinion of a school on ofsted reports, i would visit and talk to parents.

Smevchenko

schoolsandofsted wrote: »

Good to know! That's what I thought as well.

Sorry I used the wrong term, by catchment area I meant the radius at which the last distance admission was done last year (from the council website). It's around 0.2 miles for the 2013 one and 0.45 miles for the 2017 one.

Is this available from every council? I am struggling to find admission maps for Tameside

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

This looks like it for Tameside MBC.

https://www.tameside.gov.uk/schools/admissions/allocationstats

For instance if you look up Audenshaw Primary School it shows that in 2019 the furthest distance criteria admission was ~0.4m.

Smevchenko wrote: »

Is this available from every council? I am struggling to find admission maps for Tameside

schoolsandofsted

Thanks all, that was very helpful!

From what I've understood from people local to the area, both schools are quite good. But from the point of view of finding a rental, the 2013 "outstanding" one will be a nightmare as the radius is tiny and it's a very owner-occupier type area while the 2017 "good" one is bigger, has a larger radius and is more central with plenty of suitable rentals. Unfortunately, due to other overriding criteria (with regard to the area that the property has to be located in) it has to be one of these two.

Hopefully this thread will help convince my sil.

Mrsn

As pointed out the OFSTED inspections are changing and the schools current ratings in reality will mean very little.

SIL really could do with actually visiting the schools in question to get a feel of the way they operate. The school I work at and the school my children go to are miles apart in practice approaches and other areas.

Please note that although the schools are closest to the proposed area she wants to move into it does not necessarily mean that either school will be the catchment school for that address! Sounds crazy but that is very much the case for the village we live in... this can be checked on the local authorities website easily

steampowered

Give her the choice and point out the issue with relying on Ofsted reports.

Suggest some good schools (even if those don't quite meet the criteria). She can make her own mind up.

Bonniepurple

I’m heavily involved with 2 schools. One is “Outstanding” (inspected 2010) and the other is “inadequate” (inspected 2017). Neither school deserves their rating at this moment in time. Both, if they were inspected today (hope not!) would be classed as “good”. Best thing I can advise is go and visit the schools. Don’t just look at the websites.

Bluebell1000

My children are happier at their 'good' school than they were at the 'outstanding' school which they went to before we moved. Different children learn in different ways, and what suits one may not suit another... Visiting is definitely the only way you can really tell!