School comparison data

[SpicyTomatos]

I've downloaded all the comparison data for all schools, so I've now got hundreds of metrics that I could use to compare schools. I think I need to trim this down to a handful.

Which metrics do people think are important and why?

I feel like "% of pupils achieving the English Baccalaureate with 9-5 passes" sounds like a decent one, but then there is the percentage of kids who actually enter the English Baccalaureate, and if this is low, then clearly the overall percentage will be low. Plus this can be measured based on whether the children are disadvantaged or not, so I'm wondered whether I should pick the one that applies to mine.

I appreciate I'm overthinking this, but I was hoping for some thoughts from other overthinkers.

Honestly, take your year 6 child to the open day/evening and talk to other parents of students currently attending the school. Every child has different needs and there is no one size fits all data metric.

Do you not think you might be overthinking this?! There are many great schools out there with similar range of results. Start by shortlisting geographically unless you are prepared to uproot and look for points of difference that apply to your child, such as opportunities for sport, music etc , academic selectivity or faith if that is important to your family,

What exactly are you hoping to achieve from this exercise? How old are your dc or is this hypothetical?

I am also a data geek and fell down the same hole but when I actually started physically viewing schools it mostly went out the window. Results only play quite a small part in the bigger picture.

1. Results aren’t just a reflection of teaching. They are also driven by parental input, the natural academic intake of the cohort, the level of classroom disruption and the motivation of the child themselves. Is it a school where it’s “ok” to work hard / be clever? This can be seen in areas like Bucks which is full grammar. The grammars cream off the top performing kids so the results of the secondary moderns look “poor” in comparison. However, some of these schools are doing amazingly well in terms of results and Progress 8. In our local town with two single sex grammars, they each have 4 children classed as disadvantaged. The secondary moderns has 23. These things make a difference.

2. EBACC as a measurement is rubbish. If your child is not an all rounder, being forced to do a language etc can be to their detriment. It’s far more important to look at restrictions that might impact your child. For example, can anyone take three separate sciences or is it restricted to top sets only? Are there limits on the number of languages can they take? What do the current option blocks look like - will they prevent your child taking their two favourite subjects as they are in the same block?

3. You want a school that your child will come out of with 9 great GCSEs. Even Oxbridge only looks at your top eight grades sat at the same time. There is absolutely no need to do any more unless your child would thrive in doing so. There’s this weird ambitious parent notion that doing more is somehow better. I would be wary of schools where the majority only take 8. Also look at where schools sit some GCSEs a year early - are they still sitting a minimum of 8 in Y11? This is important.

4. What’s the general vibe like at the school? Quite frankly some of the more academic schools (admittedly private) sent us running to the hills. One in particular felt very formal, quite cold, the children (and parents!) were very competitive and pointy elbowed, and the children were all clones of each other. I felt you are paying for a product than actually giving your child the ability to just be themselves. Every school has a different vibe - it’s a bit like buying a house - your gut reaction tells you a lot.

5. Always look at the SEN support and pastoral offering even if your child has no known additional needs right now. How are mental health issues dealt with? It hasn’t affected us but some of my daughter’s friends have only been identified as dyslexic since starting at secondary, and a classmate has developed social anxiety. The teenage years can be hard for some.

6. Extra curricular offering. If you have a football loving daughter, does the school have a team? Is sport only really available for the more talented kids or can anyone join in? Is there a school play and is it fully inclusive or audition only for a minority? Music groups, choirs etc. Clubs for the more quirky kids like role playing games? It’s important to have balance and downtime from the classroom

There’s a whole load more to consider too but these are broad brush. Probably most importantly is are you in catchment and / or likely to get a place based on where you live? It’s pointless finding the most amazing school if you stand no chance of getting in.

But Progress 8 is measured from each individual child’s baseline entry point and the progress they make from there. How is that cohort dependent? Surely a child that progresses one or two grades from a low base point is as much of a celebration than progressing from a high base point? Isn’t that the point of this measure?

@Tiredalwaystired that is the theory. But in reality the statistics show that, on average, higher attaining students make more progress than lower attaining students. So those with higher numbers of bright students will show more progress than those with a lower average attainment.

The model is not perfect, but is better than just using attainment. As long as you are aware of the flaws in the model!

Think of it as progress being a percentage of attainment. Imagine progress is 10% per year (figures absolutely made up to show what I mean!). So a student getting 40% will progress by 4% whereas a student getting 70% will progress by 7%....

A few people have queried it - we're not planning on moving, but our borough in London has a lot of undersubcribed schools within walking distance and more within short journeys on public transport. Therefore, there is reasonable amount of choice although a lot of the options for boys are not that great, so it feels like shuffling deck chairs on the titanic a bit.

I went to an evening where we met kids from all the schools. Many of whom spoke very well on the subject. The host encouraged us to look beyond the headline data to see all the reasons they are great schools. That's what I'm trying to do. For example, she said a lot of schools with excellent results discourage kids with SEN, so this should be factored in.

She was very much against private schools and suggested that kids only loved them on open evenings due to the free snacks on offer. She wasn't without bias.