School Performance
DFE - How is school performance measured?
At both primary and secondary school, we focus on the progress pupils in a school make as well as their overall attainment.
At primary school we look at attainment and the progress pupils in a school make, compared to similar pupils nationally, between age 7 and age 11.
We have recently introduced an assessment when pupils start in reception. This means that in future we will be measuring progress in a primary school from reception until the end of year 6.
We also report on the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in all three of reading, writing and maths, and on the average scores achieved by pupils in reading and in maths. Our mix of progress and attainment
measures help us to understand how primary schools are equipping pupils with the building blocks of literacy and numeracy.
"In July 2023 the previous government announced that, given the lack of a statistically robust alternative baseline to calculate primary progress measures, DfE would not be producing or publishing primary progress measures for 2023/24 and 2024/25.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP), Phonics Screening Check (PSC) and the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) were considered as possible alternative baselines, but all were found to have statistical issues which made them unsuitable.
It will be possible to return to producing KS1-KS2 progress measures in 2025/26 and 2026/27. For the cohort reaching the end of KS2 in 2027/28, baseline data available to calculate progress will be from the Reception Baseline Assessment taken in 2021/22.
When DfE publishes 2023/24 KS2 performance measures on CSCP in December 2024 messaging will be included to explain why it is not possible to calculate KS1-KS2 progress measures for 2023/24 and to caution users about the limitations of using attainment only data to interpret school performance."