Schools change very fast, Medley, and whatever Ofsted you read etc etc will go out of date very quickly.
When I moved to SE23 a certain local school was 'the one' to go to, and every estate agent had 'catchment area for....." written all over the particulars. Fast forward a few years and it's all different again. Five years time and I would expect many of the local schools to have different Heads and totally different reputations.
So I wouldn't say that going for your local school was all about idealism. You could pick an Ofsted"Outstanding" school and see the head and senior leadership leave the next week and the whole thing go pearshaped. On the other hand it could go from strength to strength. I guess that's why it's important to get involved, whichever school it is. Even if Ofsted is your main concern - which it certainly wasn't for us.