Hello all,

It must have been an exceptionally overwhelming effort from the parents and the children equally to attempt this demanding exam. Well done to everybody for their effort.

I am trying to compare various schools based on their past performance and the recently introduced attainment score.

Have collated this list from different sources and progress attainment score as per 2018. Please correct as appropriate
School GCSE Ranking Progress Attainment
CHGS 100% 0.97
WGHS 100% 0.67
HGS 100% 0.70
QMHS 100% 0.53
SCGSG 99% 0.57
KEFWS 99% 0.49

Does anyone have any idea as to what progress attainment in reality means? Why is it that when the GCSE results are better, the attainment is relatively not?

Many thanks

You can trawl through these if you wish
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ce-measure
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... ts-schools

With reference to GS https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... le-shakeup

You should look at three years data and a trend ... the 2018 data is unvalidated ie subject to change.

Thanks folks.
I have gone through all those articles and still did not get a good view as to what exactly is going on.
When 100% of the children are achieving great GCSE scores, what is essentially being measured as an attainment?

You need to look at Attainment 8 but along with Progress 8 which measures progress for KS2 tests.

Hi Kumar, what are you actually trying to work out by looking at these numbers? It's great looking at these numbers but I have mentioned this before in my posts; we are really lucky to be spoilt for choice in Birmingham and there is hardly anything between top grammars in terms of academics. For e.g. if you compare the actual academic performance between CHB and FW, you will find the PAN for CHB is 120 and for FW it's 180. If you were to look at the top 120 students from FW, you will find the results to be pretty similar to CHB, if not better.

Moreover, CHB and CHG tend to attract higher scores to start with, so it's not surprising they fare a little better on attainment results than other schools. A bright, hard working child will do equally well in all schools

I second this comment from MSD to get into any of the grammars is an achievement in itself they all perform well as do some comps. Data has a place to a degree

I agree with MSD I don't see where we are going ?

Over the years both KE Aston and KE Handsworth have had much larger numbers from pupil premium backgrounds even before the concept was used for entrance to the grammars.I think the children who have qualified with PP will be doing there GCSE's next year and even then each school in the Birmingham consortium has different cut off scores for the abilities of the PP children they take let alone their general cut off scores.

In respect of WGHS when the girls took their entrance test I recall it was in 2013 the cut off for the last girl admitted was on a score of 297.That will have been the cohort taking their GCSE's.

I expect brighter children to make more progress and have more attainment am I wrong to think that ?

For my family when choosing a school which met our criteria had to decide on fine margins between three equidistant schools in Wolverhampton ,Handsworth and Sutton Coldfield. Sadly our local girls school had in our view limitations because of its site and lack of sporting facilities as some of the factors we viewed important.

_________________
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln

My understanding of the 'progress' scores is that if you enter the school barely scraping in and then leave with really high grades that you will have shown more 'progress'? Whereas a very bright child that starts the at the school with a high mark and leaves with high marks will have shown little 'progress'?

That's not quite right: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... ulated.pdf

Progress 8 compares pupils’ key stage 4 results to those of other pupils nationally with similar prior attainment.