Schools urged to meet their potential (From Witney Gazette)

Schools urged to meet their potential

9:00am Wednesday 5th July 2006 in Witney By Monica Sloan

THE latest drive to improve Oxfordshire schools is to be targeted at 'coasting' schools which appear to be performing well, rather than those at the bottom of league tables.

Using sophisticated data produced by the independent education organisation Fischer Family Trust (FFT), Oxfordshire County Council is trying to raise the game of schools which do not seem to be meeting their potential.

The FFT estimates how individual pupils should perform by taking their prior attainment into account, along with factors such as gender, ethnic background, special educational needs, entitlement to free school meals, month of birth and postcode.

According to the FFT estimates, only two county secondary schools exceeded expectations at GCSE last year The Cherwell School, Oxford, and St Birinus School, Didcot while 14 performed below expectations, and 18 scored in line with expectations.

Test results for the county's 14-year-olds presented a more positive picture, with seven schools exceeding expectations at Key Stage Three, and three falling below estimates. But in primary schools, 11-year-olds performed below expectations across all three core subjects at Key Stage Two English, maths and science.

According to the figures, Combe CofE Primary School, the top primary in the country last year, was among those which performed in line with expectations.

"The Fischer Family Trust data doesn't work for every school, and it doesn't work in areas like Eynsham."

Bartholomew School headteacher, Andrew Hamilton

While students across the county anxiously wait for their GCSE and A-Level results this summer, the local authority is more interested in how many will meet or surpass their estimated grades.

Some heads have criticised the council's emphasis on the figures.

But Michael Waine, the council's cabinet member for school improvement, said they were vital for challenging under- achievement. He said: "It's not an exact science, but it's the best science we've got. If we're going to make judgements with schools in terms of the efforts they are making, we need to operate on a fair playing field.

"This puts it on to that playing field. Some heads are indifferent towards it, and some are antagonistic.

"Where people are antagonistic, it is generally because they have got work to do.

"There are issues in Oxfordshire in relation to the progress children make in the three subjects at Key Stage Two.

"We as an authority need to ask questions in order to get a better understanding of why this is."

Roy Leach, the council's senior schools adviser, said: "There has been a real emphasis on the lowest attaining schools in the drive to raise achievement this is a shift away from that, and a recognition that if you are going to significantly raise the overall levels of attainment, you are not going to do it by focusing on schools like Peers and Drayton because their capacity to bring about improvement is rather less than some schools, which on the face of it are doing well."

Patrick Sanders, head of Burford School, a high-performing school which, according to FFT, could do better, said: "It's just one piece of information that you take with a pinch of salt.

"We are not underachieving, we are doing very well and the vast majority of statistics show that."

Bartholomew School, Eynsham, is among the top-performing schools in the county, but according to FFT measures, its benchmark grades are no better than expected.

Headteacher, Andrew Hamilton, said the Government's value-added figures, which compare the progress pupils make between Key Stages, were more reliable than the FFT data.

He said: "Our value-added results are actually very good. The Fischer Family Trust data doesn't work for every school, and it doesn't work in areas like Eynsham."