League Tables Return - Are You Ready?

DfE League Tables

Love them or loathe them, this October will see the return of school league tables.? After a pause in publication, the DfE will be re-introducing public league tables in a matter of weeks.? Last year limited data was published for individual schools and colleges and there were large caveats warning against comparing performance with historic data.? Most notably, the actual league tables, ranking schools, were not published last year.

This year, Ofqual and the DfE have re-iterated that standards nationally have broadly returned to the pre-pandemic standards of 2019.? This stance is clearly encouraging parents, Regional Commissioners and Ofsted to use 2023 data to compare performance across school and over time using 2019 as a benchmark.

Ofsted will be using their 2023 IDSR alongside machine learning to complete risk assessments regarding individual school performance which may trigger some early inspections and form the hypothesis, or lines of enquiry for lead inspectors.? The current framework does not provide separate grades for curriculum intent, implementation and impact.? However, now that national data will be available, Ofsted will examine how the impact is reflected in results from national tests and examinations.

School leaders know that data by itself does not tell the whole story and that KPIs are, by definition, indicators of key performance.? At SMART MAT, our experts can help school leaders really understand their school performance with an objective, unbiased review of examination performance.?

School View

School View is a cutting edge PowerBi dashboard driven from the, soon to be released, Autumn Checking files.? At SMART MAT we take the data make it interactive, easy to use and turn it into an unmissable tool for school improvement.?

Compare subject performance over time to really understand both the school and national subject distributions and how they have changed since 2019.

Are KPIs Significant?

Examine the progress from starting points for each subject. Use confidence intervals to understand if the performance is significant, or not. Too often, leaders and inspectors make judgement regarding progress without considering the significance of the KPIs - this can lead to inaccurate judgments.

Compelling Case Studies

Use the pupil profile to support individual case studies. This can be particularly useful when considering the overall impact of education for SEND pupils, or for highlighting successes of the pupil premium strategy

Take Control Of Your Data

League tables are back. Schools will be judged for 2023 examination performance. Schools will be compared to 2019 performance. It's vital that school leaders take control, understand the data and use it to make a difference.

Contact SMART View today: [email protected] Phone: 07919566209

About the Author

Karl Jackson has been a senior leader in education for 20 years.? He has a wide experience of supporting school improvement.? This includes working as a leader in some of the most improved schools in the country to driving improvement at a national level at some of the leading? MATs.