Where do universities get their information about schools from?

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

Those that make contextual offers use information about the performance of the school that the exams were sat at to give them more information about how performance of the applicant compared to that of the school overall .

Where do they get that information from? We’re in Wales.

POLAR and TUNDRA although I don’t know if it’s the same for wales but it’s a starting place.

https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/young-participation-by-area/

Thanks. I’ll take a look

Tundra doesn’t seem to apply to Wales. Just POLAR.

Our home postcode is a 3 but I can’t find anything school specific as we’re in catchment for 3 different secondary schools (Catholic, Welsh medium and English medium).

I’m not in the UK but when we send recommendations to US universities we include an information sheet about the school.

I would assume something similar is done through UCAS. I will see what I can find out until someone who knows comes along.

It's flagged on the UCAS form and often the referee, if it's a college or school tutor will provide additional information about the polar quintile/students at the school/area and of course the individual student if they have had challenging circumstances.

That’s interesting @Mumteedum, thanks. School haven’t given any information about this yet, so I have no idea who will be filling in that section of the application form.

Information about school performance and school characteristics (e.g. proportion of children on free school meals) is provided to universities by the DfE.

Universities also have access to public datasets: POLAR, ACORN and IMD, which give contextual information about the area the candidate lives in.

UCAS collects information from education authorities about candidates who have been eligible for free school meals and will pass this on automatically. UCAS also asks students to fill in optional widening participation questions.

From the UCAS advisor’s Facebook group I have got

They look at the students home postcode - I think your question is how do they use that.

Each university handles contextual differently.

Schools will often mention relevant information in the reference

Some schools have contextual information on their website

There is a box for more information and that can include contextual information or extenuating circumstances.

This might be helpful
https://www.suttontrust.com/contextual-offers-tool-for-uk-universities/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLY1kVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHucAasvgFr5Ta3YSFoNhxc0L5GXYiYjYekaJ3s4BO0LuK0976jTmlPT6Rm4k_aem_B5xlX63TtVvEeCQo_AO9_g

I hope that helps

Thanks all. It’s helpful and interesting to try to understand this more.

Our school is the only one of its type for the entire county (Welsh medium). There are some deprived areas and some very privileged within the catchment area. We’re in the middle so I’m wondering how much the school’s stats are looked at as well as our postcode.

Does anyone know if UMS scores carry much weight if they are mentioned by the teacher who is acting as the referee?

I get the impression that the school stats are looked at as well and that they can mention information.

Sorry no idea about UMS scores.

I've never seen anything to do with UMS scores to my recollection.

UMS isn’t used by universities.

Rather than your the way you’re looking at it, it’s probably more helpful to identify the universities your DC are considering and then read up on their individual policies.

Every uni is different and they may also offer access schemes that come with reduced offers.

Many universities are phasing out POLAR as it’s out of date and moving to IMD or TUNDRA. Although TUNDRA doesn’t apply for Wales.

UCAS was looking at developing its own metric (MEMs? I think) but I don’t think it’s in use yet

Thanks @AelinAG.

We’re familiar with the courses and contextual offers system at the universities that DS is interested in. It’s amazing how much it varies between institutions but he needs to make sure that at least one that he applies to is likely to make a lower offer than the rest in case things don’t go to plan on exam days next year.

Some look at GCSEs, some don’t. Some take Welsh Bacc into their considerations, others don’t. Our postcode is polar score 3, so not a standout for any reason. I’m struggling to find data about his school that might affect his offers.

His UMS scores at GCSE were outstanding (his teacher’s words, not mine!) so if there was a way for that to be considered alongside everything else it would be good. A* is one thing, but full UMS is even more impressive. Perhaps they can include it in their referee’s statement.

What we do know is that he doesn’t want to receive a relatively low contextual offer and then struggle with the course content.

The contextual offer is often not that much lower in my experience - maybe just one grade - so AAB, instead of AAA. I really wouldn't take too much time worrying about it. I also suspect that many universities ignore predicted grades (they have been shown to be unreliable in a huge number of cases) and give little attention to the reference either.

GCSE grades matter. They prove what the candidate has already shown they are capable of achieving.

@calimali thanks. If it really is GCSE marks that matter that’s a huge help as he couldn’t have done any better. However Bath university said at their open day that they don’t take GCSE maths into consideration at all 🤷🏻‍♀️

My last message should say ‘don’t take gcse marks’, not just maths!

Some do take GCSE Maths into consideration for some subjects. (I think even Bath for Psychology).
But also if a Uni really wants you they may give a low offer even if you don’t fit the profile for a contextual one.

Information on school performance in England is at https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/. You can look up individual schools or download a spreadsheet with the data for all schools & colleges. It gets more complicated once you have to look for information on schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but it is available. There will be someone in each university who either imports the relevant data into the student records system or runs comparisons of applicants' performance with average performance for students in their school.

You can look up data for individual schools in Wales at https://mylocalschool.gov.wales/?lang=en. I'm not sure how you access the bulk data for all schools, as I have a colleague who would do this.