Does anyone (who works in a school) know what this socio-economic rating of children is???

[MitziKinsky]

I was talking to DSs head of year today, and mentioned DS didn't have to much in the way of material goods.

H of Y said "Oh, but he's in the top 5% of the............."

I was , so he explained is was a statistical thing going on our post code, and nationally DS is in the top 5% (could have been top 5th, our post code really isn't that impressive!!).

Sorry this sounds so vague, but can anyone who works in a school explain this for me?

Obviously H of Y had been checking out what type of family we were before the meeting.

It'll be your ACORN profile -- check out your postcode here (it'll initially come up with something random about farming communities, so click on "Change location" and put in your postcode (even if it appears to be displaying your correct postcode to begin with))

Oh my ,I've just done this

it doesn't look good ,we all go to bingo and buy the sun apparently

Oh, I see!

Apparently we are all old around here.

My ds1 is at secondary school. They use something called the Family Fisher Trust to work out predicted grades etc. I have cut and pasted info below from their website. Basically they take postcodes, SATs scores etc to make predictions.

Hope this helps.

Fischer Family Trust is an independent charity that supports projects in health and education, such as FFT Live. FFT Live provides schools, Local Authorities (LAs) and education organisations with a wide range of online reports to support target setting, self evaluation and school improvement from Key Stage 1 through to Key Stage 5. The information is compiled using national data sets provided by the DfE and Welsh Assembly Government.

Reports are provided at both school and pupil level for the key subjects and indicators for each key stage in two main sections:

? Reviewing Past Progress (Value Added)
? Supporting Target Setting (Estimates)

Filtering can be used to analyse the performance of different groups of pupils using different models and from school to individual pupil results enabling investigation of underlying causes of identified issues. Trends can be identified over a three year period.

In addition to the interactive reports, FFT produce a School Self Evaluation Report (Analyses to School Self Evaluation) in portable document format (pdf). As with the interactive reports, this report collates data on individual pupils' performance in the end of KS2, KS3 and KS4 tests, and analyses progress over a three year period. It produces an overview of trends in performance for the school and for groups within it. FFT uses a contextual value-added model throughout these analyses. Reports are not provided for KS1, Infant or Special and Short Stay Schools. Ofsted Inspectors may request the Self Evaluation report before an inspection takes place, in order for them to start drawing up hypotheses about a school's performance. This report is available on FFT Live under the 'Self Eval' tab and also for Lancashire schools on the Lancashire ROSE secure website in the FFT section.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense! Thank you.

Oh dear, my post code makes me unemployed don't own my own home and with nothing to do but go fishing and dream of a better life by winning the lottery! Oh and I'm virtually illiterate.

I actually live in my own home with a reasonable job in a busy small town, have a good degree and would never hold a fishing rod:D

Yes, it's decidedly skewed and therefore not very helpful really. We live in a grotty area but own own home, have good degrees etc...so according to this DCs are 'deprived' but of course they're not at all.

This system might work in parts of the country but not in the very expensive cities....

i've just done our postcode and find it stereotypical and therefore not very complimentary!

and it's out of date - hugely. one of the supermarkets it reckons my neighbours shop at went bust in 2007!

I feel fitter just reading my profile! Apparently I am a young active person who likes aerobics, rugby and skiing! I suspect this is actually because I live near an army base but I'll take it as a compliment!

hmmm

"Empty nesters and couples with older children give a firmly middle-aged feel to this type."

"typically like golf" - yeah, that about sums up the twerps in my road

I am really surprised: for my postcode it says we all read the Guardian/Indy, cycle everywhere, are in our twenties and are hell-bent on self improvement.

Not what I expected at all.

Well ours is right in The Ideal World- Guardian / Inde readers, mostly degree educated (arf at not driving to work: hardly, virtually no jobs within walking distance/ public transport not viable for most).

High % students well yes, as tehre is a university here.

Except that's not how it is really: university has made lots of people redundant and city close by is struggling hugely.

Although it looks nice on paper it's bad news really as it basically suggests the biggest local problem- luck out (get sick unless elderly, lose work etc) and the assumption that you have ££££££ will mean that there are zero local services. Home start? no chance, hire someone.

It's funny - apparently my form of entertainment is tv, bingo etc.

I'm oxbridge educated, listen to radio 4 etc.... but admittedly broke and perhaps not typical of the area.

Ha - we're amazingly posh according to this, and have two holidays a year (long haul and skiing) and an expensive company car! Oh how I wish

The description does not relate to my postcode no suburbs as far as the eye can see here.

Apparently I'm a single mother with an 'exceptionally high' number of children, who spends what little money I have on drink and watch a lot of TV.
I have judged myself accordingly.

we are well posh: 'shopping is done at stores such as Waitrose, Sainsburys and M&S'

well they have described the road opposite us perfectly even down to the mile high pile of mails in the paper shop!

It's accurate for the first half of my postcode:

"Neighbourhoods fitting this profile are mainly found in Inner London and Outer Metropolitan areas such as Croydon, Harrow, Southall and Ilford.

These are metropolitan white-collar populations with high concentrations of ethnic minorities. People are generally younger, typically under 40. There are some single parents, but most households comprise single people renting and sharing flats or terraced houses. The accommodation is small, often only one or two bedrooms. Around 35% of the population is black or Asian. Both minorities occur in broadly equal proportion across this type. The level of education is above average, and jobs tend to be managerial or clerical. Levels of students, people working in the Public Sector and unemployment are all somewhat above the national average. "
The pic of a terrace could easily be from round the corner.

However my actual postcode is one side of a street of 4-bed semis, only one of which is converted into two flats, so is a bit different - older, mortaged, kids etc.

Completely wrong for my postcode, apparently all young white collar singles living in 2 bed terraces, actually big family area with mostly detached 4 beds or OAPs in bungalows.

Well apparently I have no mortgage, don't own my property, am a student, have sky tv, low income, take budget package holidays and have lots of debt, have no degree and no children.

Well it could be true for those living around me but I don't have sky tv, have a high income, 4 DCs in private school, always go on independent holiday and live in a big detached house (admittedly we don't own it but we do own a similar property elsewhere DH is forces so we just live in what we are given)

Our army estate is full of families with children, all on average to high incomes, in reliable employment and not students. I can see that we don't have mortgages (although most of us do elsewhere) as these are MOD properties.

Apparantly I live in an area where:

People tend to be well educated, and employed in senior managerial and professional occupations. Property is a mixture of houses and flats. The houses tend to be large, with four or more bedrooms, with slightly more semi-detached than detached and terraced. Flats are a mixture of purpose built and converted, some of which are privately rented. Reflecting the slightly older age profile of the people in this type, more of the houses are owned outright. Car ownership is high with two cars being very common. One of the cars is likely to be a high value company car. These affluent individuals have high incomes as well as high levels of savings and investments. They are also characterised by high credit card limits and high credit card usage. They make investments using financial advisers and brokers, as well as directly using the Internet. Internet banking is very common. All the major broadsheets are read, and interests include fine arts and antiques, theatre and good food and wine. Eating out is also popular.

Exactly how did I end up living here? I wish!!