Value added - how do schools really achieve it?

[fishpersontwo]

Just wondering...

I know this involves a complex set of variables to do with the ability of the intake, the quality of teachers/teaching and other things, but I am wondering about the CVA for a couple of well-regarded independent schools my DD has been offered places at.

How do I know if the high value added score comes from good teaching and good individual attention and guidance, or from piling on the work/homework?

Both schools have motivated pupils and an ethos of hard work - is that where a good CVA comes from? How do evaluate what the quality of what teachers and school actually contribute?

I teach in an independent school and we have value added equivalent to 1.5 - 2 full GCSE grades above their MidYis predictions.

We achieve it by knowing the pupils really well, having top notch pastoral care, and treating them as individuals throughout their schooling.

Excellent teaching, an ethos of attainment, really focused target setting if a child is underperforming, close home-school liaison.

Piling on homework probably won't be that significant... in fact I'd be wary of schools that do that, because homework should be meaningful tasks to reinforce/extend learning.

I'm in a state school btw, but that's how CVA works

It's amazing the CVA you can get with a motivated student - without that you struggle.

It's probably less the class teaching that makes the difference - assuming the teaching's competent - than the targetted support the teacher's putting in over & above (after school catch up, coursework help at lunchtimes etc).

Piling on the homework won't do it - it's about quality, not quantity.

TBH, after school catch-up is only really targeting a few students. It doesn't explain the across-the-board VA that we get. I think the underlying benefits are much more fundamental, such as safe environment, emotional stabliity, educating the whole child, etc.

Depends on the school. We don't just target a few students - there are many interventions offered for the varying needs of the students.

A bit off topic from the main question but surely there is a limit to how much can
be 'value added' to the basic GCSE syllabus?

In the independent sector they have to get the not so bright children up to the level of at the very least a pass at GCSE (and quite often up to an A grade). But they are able to do this presumably without the distraction of, shall we say, 'undesirable' pupils, who tend not to be quite so prevalent in the independent sector.

It must be so much harder to 'value add' when you are faced with a class of unruly pupils, some of which are NEVER going to get to a pass at GCSE with all the will in the world.

Conversely, when the intake is very bright to start with, they have difficulty with 'value added' because they are already at top grade GCSE level much earlier on, ie in Yr 7/8.

It's obviously a great minefield of statistics!

Agree bags. If your children are in top sets where most children are predicted and will get A/A*, then there's not much value to add!

Actually, isn't it the other way round? There is a cap on KS2 results: they only measure to Level 5 whereas good pupils are capable of getting (and used to be awarded) a Level 6. Thus very good pupils do ?value add? from KS2 to GCSE, which is part of the reason why Grammars get such good CVA.

Sorry: very good pupils do appear to 'value add' !!

I don't think KS2 Sats are used for value added though. Intelligence tests, such as MidYis, is the usual method.

The GCSE CVA is based on KS2 to KS4 scores. Not all schools use midyis.

I don't think looking at English, Mathematics and Science SATs scores in KS2 is going to provide enough info for a Contextual VA score. Perhaps a simple one, but not one that you can do anything with.

There are other baseline tests that are done at the start of Y7. Every school I have been in has done them. They haven't just accepted the SATs results. I think the idea with VA is to base the calculations on the child, outside of what has been taught before you received them (as much as that is possible).

Just seen this thread and found it really interesting. Can anyone tell me where I find Value Added results or tables? Thanks.

There are value added results on government league tables. Status quo is 1000, value added is above 1000, and going backwards is below 1000. The actual range is quite small though.

There are other ways of looking at value added. At my school, we look at how our value added translates to better GCSE grades than expected. For example, we say that we get value added because our girls get GCSE grades of 1.5 - 2 beyond their Year 7 baseline assessments, per subject, on average. The baseline testing that we do is sufficiently detailed to allow us to make specific predictions for each subject.

MoG: here's a link for CVA that I did for Duchesse the other day. You can navigate the site to find your LEA.

Thanks senua. That's a really useful link. All of the independents seem to be NP - guessing that's not published? Any idea where I can find those?