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Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 3:54 pm
by 2outof3
Hi all,

Has anyone heard of the Fisher Family Trust? My DD, in year 10, has just brought home her latest progress report with her predicted GCSE grades based on the Fisher Family Trust Targets.

I had never heard of this, but apparently the Trust "collate all Key Stage 3 data at a national level and from this data targets are produced that indicate potential performance at the end of Key Stage 4."

I was wondering if anyone had experience of these targets and whether they proved vaguely accurate in the end? Obviously the Trust don't have a crystal ball and anything can happen on the day of an exam, but it would be good to hear if anyone has views on them :D

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:40 pm
by Fluffy66
Yes i've heard of them/it.

When we needed to appeal for secondary school place last year the primary school used this for SATs/CATs(KS2). I not sure i really understood completly but i believe its a recognised way of predicting results and also the probability that your child will achieve these predicted results. All the info for CATs/SATs and the probability was compiled on one sheet and i believe this was all produced using the Fisher Trust.

As you can probably tell i didn't fully understand maybe someone else will know more to help you :)

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:18 pm
by 2outof3
Thanks Fluffy66.

Any one else heard of them? :D

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:20 pm
by Sally-Anne
There are very few surprises on this site when you have been here as long as I have ( :roll: ), but this is one of them: http://www.fischertrust.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Clearly a charitable trust established by a wealthy family to serve a range of "good causes", but beyond that I can't comment personally.

The commentary here may be of more help: http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/a ... gory_id=64" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sally-Anne

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 10:19 am
by 2outof3
Thanks Sally-Anne :D

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 10:35 am
by drummer
Basically there is a large database which has tracked the performance of children according to their KS2 results, socio-economic status, ethnicity etc etc. What schools do is then input your child's profile according to all the factors measured to see how similar children in similar circumstances perform. This gives the school a target for the child. Some schools use this instead of CATs.

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 6:03 pm
by solimum
One disadvantage with the method used is that the GCSE predictions were (as I understand it) based on KS3 results in Maths, English & Science but were applied to predict results in all subjects (so effectively a child would be likely to have similar predicted grades for all subjects)- and then to judge the teachers' performance if their class groups didn't meet predictions. I imagine that in general the predictions would be fairly good ON AVERAGE overall, but could fall down spectacularly for subjects like Music or even foreign languages where a very different range of skills and talents are involved, and would also be at best a guide to rough expectations for individual pupils whose interests and motivation might well vary across the curriculum. Like a lot of statistical techniques which look at "added value" type measures, possibly an interesting measure of areas of underperformance across a whole school, but not to be taken too rigidly for any individual child.

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:31 pm
by workhard
Hello everyone! I am writing as someone who works in state secondary schools.

In my experience, CAT scores are background information in most cases. But FFT predicted grades are very important in schools and, in general, they are a useful guide. Of course the model which produces them is not perfect, but all teachers I have known take them seriously. Teachers are judged against these FFT benchmarks.

WH

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:39 pm
by Sally-Anne
Sally-Anne wrote:There are very few surprises on this site when you have been here as long as I have ( :roll: ), but this is one of them: http://www.fischertrust.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Clearly a charitable trust established by a wealthy family to serve a range of "good causes", but beyond that I can't comment personally.
Well, you do live and learn! A little research has revealed that Buckinghamshire schools use FFT scores as one measure of achievement.

Re: Fisher Family Trust?

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 11:14 pm
by jemima
Didn't realise folks didn't know.
Have been a teacher for 23 years and using FFT for at least 10 years in Bucks. Thought it was common knowledge. In MHOP it doesn't account for the girl/boy scenario. My DS' have both blossomed at a later stage. My DD's have been consistant.
FT is known as Fisher Price in ed circles.