Ofsted a major factor in school choices, report

Parents are influenced by Ofsted reports when choosing a primary school for their children, with families abandoning schools given poor reports, research has found.

Dr Ellen Greaves, economics lecturer from the University of Exeter, analysed data from the Department for Education.

She found a good report led to a 5% increase in the number of parents choosing a school while a poor report led to an 11% drop, and was enough for some parents to rule a school out all together.

Parent Chloe said inspection ratings were frequently discussed by parents when discussing school options."We wouldn't send our children anywhere that had a bad Ofsted review," she said.

But Sarah, a mother-of two and teacher, warned other parents to look beyond Ofsted headlines when choosing both primary and secondary schools.

Chloe, from Plymouth in Devon, said there was a school close to her home which she had ruled out because of a "terrible review".

But Sarah, also from Plymouth, said parents should take a multi-faceted approach to choosing a school.

"Yes Ofsted is important but you also need to visit the school, talk to other pupils about how happy they are and work out whether a school's approach is formulaic, as is the case with some academies, or developed around the needs of each child."

Greaves also examined the relationship between house prices and Ofsted reports and found an area with highly-rated schools commanded house prices as much as 6% higher than a neighbouring area with lower-rated schools.

"That affects who can afford to go to the most popular schools, and will probably drive some segregation in the school system, between richer and poorer people," she said.

However the research found parents from lower-income and higher-income households responded similarly to the changes in the Ofsted ratings.

"For me, it changes the way that we should see how poor households engage in this and care about school quality," she said.

Schools receive approximately £5,000 in funding per child.

Greaves said a reduction in new pupils could have significant financial implications for a school and its future plans, which created a strong incentive for schools to improve their Ofsted rating.

But parent Sarah said she had chosen a school for her child based on his quality of life, rather than Ofsted.

"When I moved I wanted to him to stay at his original school because of its Ofsted and reputation but we were spending an hour travelling each way every day.

"I wanted him to be able to develop friendship groups with children who lived nearby and to be able to walk home from school when he's old enough."

She said she had checked the new Ofsted and "wouldn't have chosen it if it had been awful" but it was not her chief consideration.

The study was based on the previous Ofsted grading system: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, and Inadequate.

Ofsted has since introduced a report card method, which accesses schools across individual areas: Leadership and governance, curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, achievement, personal development and wellbeing, inclusion and safeguarding.

The researchers said that one benefit of the previous system might have been the simple and salient, easily digestible information, which was accessible for all types of families.

They found parents whose children qualified for free school meals were equally responsive to changes in Ofsted reports when it came to choosing a school.

Greaves said the research, carried out in partnership with the University of Sussex, was the first to establish a casual relationship between Ofsted reports and parents' school choices.

She said its findings provided incentives for all schools to improve or maintain their inspection rating, as school budgets were primarily determined by pupil numbers.

"Whether this continues under the new system, and whether incentives act to improve the quality of children's educational experience and wellbeing at school, should be the subject of further research," she said.