What makes a good school? Have your say!

File picture of a teacher in a classroom
-Credit:Ben Birchall/PA Wire


The methods used to evaluate and compare schools are undergoing significant transformations, with the education watchdog Ofsted having already overhauled their controversially simplistic grading system. Their aim is to provide parents with more comprehensive insights and context.

Joining this effort to make school assessments fairer, experts have developed the Fairer Schools Index, which addresses various biases inherent in the traditional systems of school grading.

Have your say! What makes a good school? Are top exam results the priority, or would you look for something else? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.

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In years gone by, English parents had to depend on brief one or two-word evaluations from Ofsted to gauge a school's quality. Such inspections would culminate in the school being assigned a rating: outstanding, good, requires improvement, or inadequate.

Looking ahead, there will be a new approach a "report card" that deconstructs distinct facets of a school's performance to furnish parents with more nuanced, actionable information as they seek out the best educational establishment. According to The Mirror, the Fairer Schools Index takes into account additional elements that include student demographics, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, which go beyond just the standard performance metrics.

Advocates argue that this approach mitigates some of the implicit bias against schools that educate pupils from less affluent communities, often seen in the Department for Education's league tables. There are instances where schools climb significantly higher in this Index compared to their standing in conventional league tables, earning due acknowledgement for "beating the odds" and effectuating substantial impact.

For instance, pupils from less affluent backgrounds who receive free school meals typically perform worse than their counterparts by 0.69 of a grade on average. With nearly a quarter of all students receiving free school meals, the Index aims to consider factors like this when formulating the new ranking system.

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The Northern Powerhouse Partnership think-tank is advocating for the index to be used in conjunction with the league tables. Chief executive Henri Murison stated: "We must demand the best for every child. Those schools that beat the odds stacked against their pupils should be recognised as being high performing. And that will drive down the disadvantage gap over the next decade and reduce the gaps which exist across and between parts of England today."

"By failing to account for a number of different variables related to pupils' backgrounds, the last government labelled many schools in areas like the North East of England as under-performing while failing to account for demographic differences in helping drive higher outcomes in London schools."

Have your say! What makes a good school? Are top exam results the priority, or would you look for something else? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.

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