On the 29th January 2015 the Welsh Government introduced a new system of school categorisation to replace the secondary school “banding” system which has operated for a number of years. The new system now includes primary schools. As one of a small number of schools in Wales, which has both primary and secondary students, the new system does not ideally suit us as judgements have been made on the separate phases and then brought together to provide one judgement, which in our view is not truly representative of our performance. We also have some previous results included in our data set from the four schools that closed to form Ebbw Fawr.
How does the new system work?
Support Category
Each primary and secondary school is placed into one of four coloured coded support categories. Support comes from the local Council, the Education Achievement Service for South East Wales, Schools Challenge Cymru and schools own resources. Green – Highly effective school which is well run, has strong leadership and is clear about its priorities for improvement. Yellow – An effective school which is already doing well. Amber – A school in need of improvement which needs help to identify the steps to improve or to make change happen more quickly. Red – A school in need of greatest improvement which will receive immediate, intensive support.
Standards Group
Schools are placed into one of four standards groups. Schools in Group 1 demonstrate very good overall performance and those in group 4 demonstrate the greatest need for improved performance.
Improvement Capacity
This is an evaluation of the schools capacity to improve further, taking into account the overall standards, quality of leadership and quality of teaching and learning. Schools are in four groups with in improvement capacity: Capacity A showing the most capacity to improve themselves and those in improvement capacity D showing the least capacity.
What does this mean for Ebbw Fawr Learning Community?
Our two phases received two different support categorisations which have been graded to the lower of the two as Amber. The EAS advisers have said that this helpful to us as we will receive additional support to make change happen more quickly. This coupled with the additional support through the Welsh Challenge Cymru programme will enable us to make quicker progress. Our standards group is judged as two separate phases against all primary and secondary schools in Wales and not as one school. Our primary phase is in group 2 and the secondary in group 3. Again this data includes historical results from the previous schools. But we know that our secondary phase is the 5th most improved “school” in South East Wales over the last three years with the key indicator of 5A*-C grades including English & Mathematics lifting from 39% to 53% Our improvement capacity is also split between primary and secondary phases and brought together, after much discussion, as a C grade. This does disappoint us as in the same week the Education Achievement Service for South East Wales have confirmed that we will become one of only five Centres of Excellence in Leadership and will be asked to lead on aspects of school leadership across the region.
Overall view
Our view is that we are an effective school which is already doing well and that we are addressing the areas we need to improve. We are two years in to a longer term plan to improve standards across the whole 3-16 age range; we have seen improvements in all key stages over the last two years with improved attendance and greater parental support than ever before, change takes time and requires a continuous drive to improve teaching and learning standards. We have that in abundance. With continued support from the appropriate agencies and the determination of Governors, Staff, Parents and Students our progress will continue to improve rapidly.
Further information on the categorisation system can be found from:
http://mylocalschool.wales.gov.uk
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationskills/schoolhome/schooldata/ims
Additional Information & Downloads: [prettyfilelink src=”https://www.ebbwfawr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/150119-parents-guide-en.pdf” type=”pdf” newwindow=”true”]A Guide to the national school categorisation system[/prettyfilelink] [prettyfilelink src=”https://www.ebbwfawr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Categorisation-January-20151.pdf” type=”pdf” newwindow=”true”]A letter to parents re: National school categorisation system[/prettyfilelink]