New data reveals the truth about school performance

http://www.education.gov.uk/a00202531/secperftables12


DFE Press notice setting out the secondary school performance tables for GCSE and A level exams.


Department for Education publishes 400 per cent more data about secondary schools
Schools Minister Nick Gibb condemns ‘shocking waste of talent’ of deprived children

New data, released today for the first time, reveals the truth about every secondary school’s performance.
The publication of the results of more than 3,300 secondary schools’ GCSE and A Level exams is part of the Government’s drive for greater transparency - giving parents more information than ever before about how their child’s school is performing. The Department for Education is this year publishing 400 per cent more data about secondary schools than in 2010.
The 2011 Schools Performance Tables now include:

• how well disadvantaged children perform in each school
• whether previously high, middle and low achieving pupils continue to make progress
• how many pupils at each school are entered into the core academic subjects that make up the EBacc.

The 2011 GCSE results reveal that hundreds of secondary schools are failing to help pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve their full potential. Disadvantaged children - those on free school meals or in local authority care for at least six months – are approximately half as likely to achieve the national benchmark of five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and maths compared to their peers.
The figures also highlight those schools that are successfully achieving great outcomes for deprived children, setting a gold standard for other schools to follow.
 The results show that:

• only 33.9 per cent of disadvantaged pupils achieved five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and maths, compared to the national average of 58.2 per cent in maintained schools
• in 339 schools, with more than 10 disadvantaged pupils, fewer than 20 per cent of those pupils achieved five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and maths
• in contrast 21 schools, with more than 10 disadvantaged pupils, saw more than 80 per cent of those pupils gaining five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and maths.

The picture is similar with the core academic subjects that make up the EBacc. Nationally, only one in 25 disadvantaged pupils managed to secure good grades in a combination of English, maths, a language, history or geography, and two sciences. This compares to the national average of nearly one in six.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

We should have high expectations for all children regardless of their circumstances. Today’s figures reveal a shocking waste of talent in many schools across the country. All too often, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds aren’t given the same opportunities as their peers.

But there are great examples of schools achieving the best for their disadvantaged pupils. If they can get it right, then so can all schools.

Thanks to the introduction of the EBacc, we are opening up opportunities for all pupils to study the core academic subjects that employers and universities demand. And with the Pupil Premium we are specifically targeting funding at disadvantaged pupils, so that schools have the resources they need to make a difference.

For the first time, the Tables highlight how pupils have progressed since they left primary school.
The figures show the hard work by many secondary schools in turning around pupils who were below the expected standard at the end of Key Stage 2. 6.5 per cent of pupils who had been below Level 4 at the end of primary school, went on to achieve five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and maths.
However, this year’s GCSE statistics also show that thousands of previously high achieving pupils are being failed by their secondary school:

• 8,600 pupils, 4.9 per cent, who were excelling at the end of primary school, then failed to gain to five A*-C grades including English and maths.
• 45.6 per cent of pupils, some 120,000, who were at Level 4 at Key Stage 2 failed to make the expected amount of progress, to five A*-C grades including English and maths, at secondary school.

Nick Gibb added:

Children only have one chance at education. These tables show which schools are letting children down. We will not hesitate to tackle underperformance in any school, including academies. Heads should be striving to make improvements year on year, and we will not let schools coast with mediocre performance.

We are driving up standards right across the board. We are bringing the best graduates into teaching, developing a world-class curriculum, and restoring order to our classrooms.

We have introduced a tough new inspection regime targeted at the weakest performing schools and Ministers now have clear new powers to intervene when schools are failing.

The GCSE and A Level results for 2011 also show that:

• for the 166 academies with results in both 2010 and 2011, the percentage of pupils achieving five or more good GCSEs including English and maths rose from 40.6 per cent to  46.3 per cent, an increase of 5.7 percentage points. This means academies' GCSE results improved by nearly twice the level seen across all maintained schools
• there are 107 secondary schools below the floor standard. 132 schools rose above the floor from 2010 to 2011, with 48 schools dropping below the floor
• only 23.7 per cent of all pupils were entered for a combination of subjects that could lead to the EBacc – last year it was 22.0 per cent
• just 17.6 per cent of all pupils achieved the EBacc – last year it was 15.6 per cent
• the overall number of five GCSE (or iGCSE or equivalent) passes at A* to C including English and mathematics for all pupils has increased this year by 5.4 percentage points to 58.9 per cent –  in state-funded schools there was a 3.1 percentage point rise to 58.2 per cent.

Notes to editors:
1. The Performance Tables will be available at www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance
2.  Raising the attainment for disadvantaged children is an absolute priority for the Government. For the first time, this year’s tables include information on the performance of deprived pupils – defined as those either eligible for free school meals or who have been looked after continuously by the local authority for six months.
3. Low attainers are those who did not reach Level 4 at Key Stage 2. Medium attainers are those who reached Level 4. High attainers are those who exceeded Level 4.
4. A secondary school is below the floor standard if:

• fewer than 35 per cent of pupils achieve the basics standard of five A* to C grade GCSEs inc English and maths and
• fewer pupils make good progress in English between KS2 and KS4 than the national average and
• fewer pupils make good progress in maths between KS2 and KS4 than the national average.

The 35 per cent floor will increase. In 2012, it will rise to 40 per cent and by 2015 it will rise to 50 per cent.
The local authorities with the highest percentage of schools below the floor are:

• Middlesbrough (two schools, 28.6%), Knowsley (two schools, 28.6%), Kingston upon Hull, City of (four schools, 28.6%), Poole (two schools, 25%), Nottingham (three schools, 23.1%), Derby (three schools, 21.4%), Sheffield (five schools, 20.8%), North East Lincolnshire (two schools, 20%), Medway (three schools, 18.8%), Newcastle upon Tyne (two schools, 18.2%)

There are 95 local authorities with no schools below the floor.
5. The Department for Education is publishing 400 per cent more data about secondary schools:

Why should teachers be qualified to teach?

A free school in Oldham is being set up; the intention is to staff it with ex-armed forces personnel.  I am not against members of the armed forces working in school.  This has been proven to work; look at Skill Force.  However, Skill Force works within a school setting and follows the policies of the school it works in.  Nor am  I against a school being set up and run by ex-armed forces that are trained and qualified teachers.  I am sure that their previous experience would enrich their careers as teachers; as is the case with many who enter the profession from a non-teaching background.  My issue is whether this free school will be staffed by people qualified to teach in schools.  This legislation yet again shows how we, as teachers, have lost control of our professional identity.  Should we not expect our children to be taught by people that are qualified to do just that; teach?  Why do we think that the skills that make people successful in one sphere of employment; in this case the armed forces, will make them qualified to be successful in another.  As a qualified teacher am I then up to conducting a wee bit of brain surgery?  Possibly not.  I am sure there are some ex-soldiers who have what it takes to make excellent teachers without formal training, but are we happy to leave it to chance?  I'm quite physically fit; but I'm sure the army don't want me messing up thier finely tuned strategy by turning up on the front line.

As a society we have lost sight of the fact that teaching is an extremely difficult job that takes lots of training and experience to do well.

Read the article from the BBC here and watch here.

Michael Gove is on the Naughty Step in the TES

Michael Gove's actions this week have got him sat on the Naughty Step in this week's  Times Education Supplement.

Read the article here - On the naughty step - Conduct that deserves a ticking off

Developing Students' Evaluation Skills Fish and Chips evaluation

Thank you to Guy Goodwin for another thoughtful contribution to Agility. Here Guy suggests a technique to help students think about developing their evaluation skills.  The beauty of this tip is that it uses something all students know something about, food, to prompt them to think about how to evaluate.

Fish and Chips evaluation

Problem: how to get pupils to improve the ‘evaluation ‘ part of exam and essay answers as they move from GCSE to A level. At GCSE it is often enough to answer questions by saying ‘some people think this…others think that….and I think…’ for a conclusion. In examiner speak the ‘evaluation is implicit in a juxtaposition of different approaches.’ At A level this kind of approach will be credited but doesn’t reach the highest levels in mark schemes. Pupils sometimes struggle to see how to evaluate a range of material and come to a reasoned conclusion.

An exercise that can help is to hold a discussion on a topic that most\all pupils will have some knowledge of, one I like is ‘Which is the best fish and chip shop in Oxford?’

AO1 – what is a fish and chip shop? Demonstrate brief understanding of the kind of establishment we mean and identify a number of examples. Possibly also exclude KFC, McDonalds, etc. It may be necessary to define our terms at this point.

A02 – What are the pros and cons of the various outlets? Price, quality, proximity to home, friendly staff etc and a comparison of each shop on these criteria – this forms the bulk of the discussion – if ‘Posh Fish’ is commended for portion size, how do others compare? Is quality of fish more or less important than price? If people disagree about this how can it be resolved? Perhaps there is no single answer to the question that everyone will agree with…now we are seeing that there are not just a range of criteria to consider but also that people will disagree about which are the most important so we are no longer ‘juxtaposing’ but our analysis ‘falls out ‘of a consideration of many points (all of which should be illustrated with examples, obviously).

AO3 – the evaluation. We now, hopefully, can see that evaluation is the natural result of a proper consideration of a question from a range of perspectives (and hence not difficult or scary). Equally for those who tend to offer opinions unsupported it is apparent that evaluation can’t take place without the collection of a range of viewpoints; lack of illustration\examples spoils attempts to evaluate.

Obviously it needn’t  be fish and chips, but something easy and familiar so that you can focus on the structure of the discussion rather than the content.

Ofsted plans to scrap 'satisfactory' label for schools

It looks like being satisfactory is not longer satisfactory!  It has been a real week for announcements on Education, pretty much one major announcement a day.  However, we need to be aware that Ofsted has new boss, Sir Michael Wilshaw, and he wants to make his mark. It seems he is driven by a desire to shake things up and is uncompromsing in his drive to ensure students get the very best.  He is a controversial figure that will divide opinion and it is worth having a look at what he says.

For other announcements check the BBC's Education page.

Poor teachers face tougher system under shake-up

Click on this link to see the article from the BBC.  We all need to be aware of the actions being taken by government.  This simply adds to my belief that the teaching profession has never really taken control of its own professional standards or professional identity, and that the need to do so is still critical.

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

Professor Dylan Wiliam at The Schools Network Annual Conference

Ever want a quick and simple tool to help with plenaries?

Plenaries are often the Cinderella in our lessons.  We should plan for them, but often forget, and often when we have planned one we run out of time or forget it is there.  Well this little wonder of a PowerPoint can have you up and running with wonderful plenaries with little or no planning; sounds too good to be true doesn't it? The PowerPoint is really simple; ask a student to pick a number, the number they choose links to a question and you can use this to check student learning from your lesson.  Simple!

AfL plenary resource: Pick a number

How do we keep Students on their toes?

It is always a challenging task to ensure that we keep students engaged and involved in all of our lessons and that we are on top of assessing how well each individual is accessing what we are trying to teach.  There is a lot of advice out there about how we can make those minute by minute assessments to make sure we know students are with us.  You can find lots of ideas in books such as Jim Smith’s Lazy Teacher.  However, we also have good ideas at Cheney and below Toby Lockyer has been kind enough to share his 21^st century version of lollypop sticks.  These resources can be used to support no-hands questioning and for other activities that will help keep your students on their toes.

Once again thank you Toby for your contribution.

Toby Lockyer (Maths Department) writes:

I have organised the two types (for excel and power point) of virtual lolly stick resources into a folder including working examples.

They have instructions on how they work. Their uses are very similar as for lolly sticks.

They are in: staff resources/maths/toby/Random name and prize generators (virtual lolly sticks)

If you want me to pop over for five minutes and show you them in action I’d be more than happy to.

Toby π J