Have a look at these KS1 and KS2 results and tell me what they say about the school please

[bytheMoonlight]

In KS2 significant improvements have been made over
the past three years.

At the end of KS2 (Y6) % of pupils achieving L4 or above.
Reading 2008 63% 2009 75% 2010 79%
Writing 2008 43% 2009 38% 2010 47%
Mathematics 2008 55% 2009 65% 2010 77%

At the end of KS1 (Y2) significant improvements have
been made in the percentage of children achieving 2A which is above national
average expectations

Reading 29% with 20% at level 3
Writing 13%
Mathematics 39%
EYFS Benchmark 2008 33% 2009 43% 2010 40%

What do you think?

Spidepig what sort of results would you be looking for?

What you need to do is look up the KS2 results and compare them with the national average for primary schools. I would say that for this school the results in Maths and Reading are close to average and writing below average. BUT if the pupils are below average to start with this is good progress so the school would get a good rating as OFSTED.
A level 3 OFSTED rating is still satisfactory so this really isn't a problem.
The other thing to remember is that a level 4 at writing is hard. For level 2 (average end of Y2) a child needs to be able to write simple sentences that begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop. But for level 4 a child needs to be able to punctuate using commas, add correct speech punctuation and have more complex sentence structure. All this has to be done under timed conditions for one piece of work only i.e. on the day of the test. However I believe they are changing the writing assessment slightly from next year so that a more continuous assessment process is used so writing results may well improve for lots of schools.
Also schools in deprived areas do tend to get extra government funding which means they are not asking parents for money all the time and try to keep down costs of school trips etc. so its not all bad news.
And if you want to know my dd went to the type of primary school you are describing and achieved above average results at the end of Y6 last year so it is possible for bright children to do well there!

Looking at results KS1 nd KS2 results alone will not tell you if the school is good or not. A school could get 100% of children reaching level 4 in KS2 and not be a good school because all those children could have reached a level 3 in KS1, so its about how far they have travelled.

'Children should travel' 2 stages between KS1 and KS2, so you need to ask what percentage of children did that. As someone else sys, its about where the children started from. I would ask what percentage of children are on free school meals, as this is the key indicator of how many children are considered to come from a deprived social and economic background. If the figure is low, you would expect high SATS grades as a matter of course. If there are a high percentage of children on free school meals, but a large percentage are getting high grade 2's and 3's at KS1 and high grade 4's and 5's at KS2 and travelling at least 2 stages between KS1 and KS2, than they are getting good results. (The Head will have all this information from the recent Raiseonline data)

I would also ask the school how their results compare to the national average.

I would also ask if there are any significant attainment gaps between different groups and what action is being taken.

I would also ask what the prioroties are in the school development plan.

I would also ask for the schools results from their recent parnts and childrens questionnaires.

Hope this helps.

That is really good advice, thank you.

I know a high number of children are on free school meals.