Ofsted Reports At Appeal

[sillyjolly]

The latest Ofsted report (from 2009) from my DS school states that the school recognises that the standards reached by the more able pupils are not yet high enough and that these pupils still do not achieve as well as they could in English and mathematics.

Given that my son is "a more able pupil", is it ok to mention this at appeal?

[hermanmunster]

I suspect it depends what the test in your area involves - most of them are VR / NVR so the Ofsted comments wouldn't help much.

What you really need is evidence that refers to your child in the areas they tested eg CATS and so one.. What have you got so far?

[sillyjolly]

The 11+ test involved a maths, English and VR. Failed by 5 points (1%) but the school refuses to give a breakdown by subject.

Year 5 SATS results

Reading 5C
Writing 4A
Maths 4A (sat a year 6 SATS paper in year 5)

[Etienne]

the school refuses to give a breakdown by subject

It's not unreasonable at the appeal hearing to raise this point, and ask whether the school representative can provide the information since it could be of relevance to your case.

Then go on to explain why it matters.

Have the Ofsted report with you, and refer to it briefly. (I honestly don't think the panel will want to read it, but they have the opportunity to ask to see it if they wish.)

[sillyjolly]

Thanks Etienne

Can you tell me whether an appeal panel would look upon attending an under performing school as a disadvantage and to achieve decent results a sign of a truely gifted and talented pupil?

[Etienne]

Each individual panel makes its own judgement, but in my view it should be a plus point - and one that should be carefully considered along with all the other evidence.

[bubblehead]

I am also considering mentioning OFSTED report at appeal. My dd has pretty good results despite the report saying that there were 'gaps in the curriculum', 'teachers do not challenge more able pupils', 'bad behaviour causes disruption to lessons'.

I wasn't sure whether it would look like we were trying to use every excuse possible as we also have considerable mitigating circumstances.

I would be interested to know what you decide to do. I am in the process of putting my presentation together so I will let you know whether I include it.

Bubblehead

[sillyjolly]

I have always known that the school my ds attends does not academically challenge pupils, but ds has always achieved highly and loves going to the school. I have read lots of comments on the forum about raising the point of being in the gifted and talented set within a high-performing school, so surely a dc who achieves highly in an under-performing school is also worth a mention. I am certainly going to raise the subject at appeal.

[U400JB9]

We used the OFSTED report for our primary at our appeal. The School was put into special measures just prior to our appeal and the report said the school had specifically failed children in years 5 & 6.
We took a copy of the report to the appeal, the HT had already mentioned the Ofsted report in her letter so the appeal panel were aware of the schools failings before we got there. It was discussed and a lovely man( ) on the panel said my daughter had excelled to get the scores she did under the circumstances. I`m fairly sure it was a big part of what made our appeal successful.