Comparing schools in Wales and England

[walesnwest]

We're considering moving area, could be Wales or England.
Our child is below school age currently so I'd like to to look at quality of local state schools (no budget for private).
I'm struggling to find ways to compare options/find good schools in areas I don't know. I think I read that PISA said England is better but can't find actual per school data. I shelled out £1 for Times subscription but the state schools largely seem to have opted out of their guide at least in Wales. Am I missing somewhere I should be looking for this information?

England - the ofsted data will be here.

www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables

Estyn also has a search facility for inspection reports for wales.

You can choose primary and then the region you are looking at.

https://www.estyn.gov.wales/provider?f%5B0%5D=localauthority%3A52&f%5B1%5D=providerr_sector%3A47

2 key differences, many Welsh schools teach in welsh and English and also in Wales we have a longer time for learning through play when they start school. I have dc educated in both england and then Wales and Wales was much more a relaxed learning style up to year 1. We have had a good experience of the education system but Wales is always low in the tables.

Thanks I'm just having a look, the data seems to use different measures in England and Wales so there's no direct comparison? Eg on the academic side I can just see these in photo below for Wales whereas England seems to have more measures but not these?

Main thing really is would you be able to support your child if they had to learn in Welsh which is the case in some Welsh schools. Some of my family moved to North Wales and it seems more common to be the only language used in primary schools there than in the South so maybe area is also a consideration.

You seem to be looking at secondary schools.

In England the data for secondary schools that you can see on the dashboard will be maths and English pases, English ebac (basically useless) and progress 8.

Progress 8 is heavily manipulated by schools and can vary a lot over time so a bit dangerous to use without looking at several years data.

You can see the GCSEs that are offered though - for example a now closed school near me.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/140881/littleport-%26-east-cambs-academy/secondary/subjects-entered

This is not comparable to the Welsh data. The Welsh data shows point scores at gcse for maths, literacy (either Welsh or English) and science.

So you can compare English schools to English schools and Welsh schools to Welsh schools.

I would dispute that most schools in Wales teach in welsh. My DC were both educated in Wales, but went to English speaking schools . They were taught Welsh to GCSE level but all other subjects were taught in English. The majority of schools in Wales are predominantly English speaking. There are Welsh speaking schools too, but they are a minority. The English speaking schools will say things like 'good morning' in Welsh but other than that its all English

Having looking at the way Scotland has tanked educationally with their new curriculum I would choose England over Wales. Wales have based their new curriculum on Scotland. Although England has its own issues in lack of funding, overworked teachers and no SEN provision these are also shared by Wales.

Having said that, you would need to look at individual schools really anyway.

Thanks yes I'm looking at primary and secondary. Not Welsh speakers but in Wakes we'd be in English speaking areas with plenty of English speaking schools.

The OECD report (which compares the level
of education and outcome in comparable developed countries) last year was pretty dire for Wales. It had largely caught up pre-pandemic but has slipped right behind again and it was placed quite considerably below the other UK nations. That doesn’t mean to say that every school in Wales is appalling and every child is going to have a terrible outcome, though. I would probably consider schools more on a case by case basis.