Obtaining past exam results statistics from school

[HolisticStatistic]

I’m curious as to how my children’s state secondary school is performing in a certain subject in terms of uptake of the subject through to AH, and Grades obtained in exams.

But how do I go about doing this? I know I could make a Freedom of Information request but I looked into this and it looks like you can only do this if you’ve approached the school first. I’m just wondering if I will really annoy the Headteacher by asking for this info. Is it out of order to say, ask for the past 3 years results in one subject for Nat 5, Highers and Advanced Highers? I just want to know how many kids are taking the subject, and how they do when they actually take the exams. It would obviously be anonymised info so I don’t see a data protection issue. I can perhaps see a Headteacher objecting to the request because of the time it would take to retrieve the information, and also if they were worried how I was going to use the info. I will only be using it for my personal research. Does anyone know if that information would be difficult to compile or should each department have those sort of annual reports/statistics quite easily available to analyse?

I get on well with the Headteacher but don’t want to cause any ructions and, as I say, I am interested on a personal level in the teaching of a particular subject.

Be good to know if anyone has done this before or has a Teacher’s perspective perhaps?

It's not clear what you hope to achieve from this, or what you think it will show - if pupils have regularly been failing that could be to do with many things other than teacher performance, if that's what your thinking of.
They results may not be anonymised enough - if the subject had one advanced higher pupil last year and you have dc in the school then you would be getting the result of that pupil.
It's a very sweeping request and I wonder if you need all of that to answer your actual concern. If you don't actually have a concern, think of the additional stress the request will put on that department - I don't just mean workload, I mean the sense that someone is questioning their professionalism (whether or not you are, that is what we would think).

If it's more than idle curiosity then this is the sort of thing I would raise with the subject teacher at parents' night. Rather than just raw statistics they will be able to advise in a way that is relevant to your DC.

On an individual school level a lot can change dependent on particular year groups and fashions in subject choice. Therefore a couple of years stats without context are unlikely to help a discussion about a particular child.

Agree with pp also. Even at Higher in lots of subjects the numbers were so small at my DDs' average size school that not only would they not be anonymous they would also be completely statistically irrelevant.

Yes there’s no way of asking for this without raising my suspicions is there - and actually the point about being actually able to identify pupils grades because there were only 3 people taking a subject is valid (as fewer and fewer pupils seem to be taking the subject)

Thanks for replying. It’s an awkward situation because I do know for a fact that there is a department being led by someone who seems totally demotivated and I think the whole department suffers as a result. It’s just a shame but I guess it’s the weak point of the school and no school is perfect. It’s just a shame and I might just have to accept it and move on or come at it from a different angle.

Chicken and egg though. Are fewer people taking it because the HOD is demotivated, or is he/she demotivated because of how the subject is viewed in the school?
If your dc is keen they should still be able to do well.

If your dc is keen they should still be able to do well.

I agree with this and would add having a keen pupil tends to improve motivation.

"I do know for a fact that there is a department being led by someone who seems totally demotivated and I think the whole department suffers as a result."

Sounds like rumours and gossip. Its a fact someone seems? How have you come to this conclusion so far?

Has your dc been directly impacted by teaching in the school?

It's on good authority unfortunately BrokenWing a bit of insider info. And it's evident from my interactions with the person in question. And the output of the department into the general life of the school.
TomBakersScarf that's a good point - perhaps the subject isn't valued and I can imagine that might have demotivated the HOD over time.

I'm not particularly worried about the subject in relation to my own child to be honest as my child has reached the point where they hate the subject because the lessons have been so disorganised with endless teachers going off on long term sick and a succession of supply teachers. It's just a subject I think should be valued more in a school and it just doesn't seem to be.

As I said before, I might try a different more constructive approach.

Results and status will be affected by a string of supply teachers.

Have you looked here
www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education

As a parent I can understand why you would want the information. As a teacher it is by and large useless. This is not measuring against virtual comparator (the only stat that is not a postcode measurement) so not useful for anything. You are getting a snapshot of a variable.

I can think of departments where I teach and in the secondary school where DDs are that are being systematically dismantled as they don't fit with current HT's vision. And that can change in a heartbeat with a change of SLT. You can go from flavour of the month to ignored and neglected and have done nothing differently. Some subjects Computing and Home Ec have major recruitment problems so a parade of supply is inevitable and not the school's or PT's fault.

We had a FOI request for some data that a parent wanted for their interest. We had one hour on the INSERVICE day for development work in departments - guess what our's was spent doing? FOI requests are treated very seriously. So those exciting new resources we were going to develop made way for the data gathering.

There are some subjects that attract committed students as they need A passes for progression to Uni Chemistry for example. Others MFL. For example might attract lots of S6 crashes so might look as though they don't get a tonne of A's but actually reflect some amazing efforts from candidates and teachers.

I no doubt provide insider info (whilst being totally professional) to friends but I am the first to admit how biased that must be as I will always see the world through the filter of my subject -clearly the most important .

Thanks Lidl for the teacher’s perspective - useful to hear.