Could someone please talk me through league tables?

[veggieburger]

Just a quick question really. I know when looking at the league tables the overall % getting level 4 isn't the most important bit - every child is different etc. But what I was wondering is what would be considered a 'good' % in the progress column (what percentage of pupils made the expected amount of progress). The school our DCs are at has 75% of pupils gaining level 4 maths and english but 88% make expected progress - is this good?

Sorry for rambling a bit!

I have to admit to have no real understanding of these results tables and I feel like I should. I have one ds and I'm 41 so have been out of the loop for some time. His school isn't the best on paper, Ofsted results were Satisfactory, there are a few issues which I hope won't become huge but we'll see, be interested to see some feedback on his schools results too.

It means exactly what it says. 88% of children made 2 levels of progress between end of Y2 and Y6.

Ideally 100% of them would have, but of course normally not everyone does (for various reasons).

The value added is a good score to look at. Over 100 is good.

Also look at FSM. I kind of have a theory that if the % of FSM plus the % achieving L4 is over 100, then it's a good school :)

So other things to remember - these results reflect on 4 years of teaching, not all of the kids will have been in that school for 4 years.

Plus it's a statistic about the last 4 years of teaching. The next 4 years could be totally different (especially if you get a new head.)

Anyway, those raw numbers you gave look fine. Certainly nothing that would scare me off.

So they would be good then? This whole thing really confuses me, luckily my oldest is year 4!

and when we get back to the real world,

do your kids skip in
are they proud of the work they bring home
are the teachers bouncy

if those are in place all the league table stuff sinks to where it should be : guidance for the regulators in making sure your bit works OK

I too am a bit unsure how to interpret these results. DCs school had a large difference between % making expected progress in english (75%) and % making expected progress in maths (95%). Does this represent that english is taught badly at the school?

Honestly, none of this matters if your kids are at the school and happy.

If you're trying to choose a school, then they are worth pouring over.

It does sound like English teaching is weaker than maths teaching - and that means you can be damn sure it'll be top priority of the school to improve it. So next year everything could change. Also sounds like they're very good at teaching maths. 95% is very good.

Really these general stats don't matter. What matters is how your child does - both academically and socially, emotionally etc.

You have a long, long, long time till GCSEs which are the first results that actually matter.

"% making expected progress in english (75%) and % making expected progress in maths (95%). Does this represent that english is taught badly at the school?"

Nope, it could mean very good maths, it could mean a lot of EAL students, it could mean a lot of things.

The important thing is what your child will achieve.