The 50 best schools in England have been revealed, showing where teachers are truly making a difference in class. For the Fairer Schools Index, researchers measured each of them against additional factors such as pupil demographics, ethnicity, and deprivation, alongside existing performance-based metrics. They say this removes some of the built-in bias against secondaries teaching children from deprived areas in the Department for Education’s league tables.
The results, revealed exclusively by the Mirror, show the schools where teachers are beating the odds to make the greatest positive impact on pupils up to the age of 16. Once the socio-economic factors of students are taken into account, some schools climb more than 1,500 places compared to their DfE ranking, making the index an invaluable resource for parents trying to decide where to send their child to be educated. The Northern Powerhouse Partnership think-tank is pushing for the index to be adopted alongside the league tables.
Chief executive Henri Murison said: “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.”.
The index is revealed as wider questions are being asked about how the government will evaluate school performance. It has already scrapped “unfair” one-word Ofsted judgments to pave the way for more comprehensive School Report Cards next year. The DfE’s current method of evaluating secondary school performance – known as Progress 8 – measures the development of pupils from the end of primary school to the completion of year 11.
