Assessment: How accurate is your data?

I joined Alfreton Grange Arts College (now David Nieper Academy) in 2013 as assistant headteacher for curriculum and standards. Two weeks into the role, the small secondary school was placed in special measures. The school had been led by four different headteachers in as many years and the instability this created had finally come to a head.

A key issue highlighted in the 2013 Ofsted report was the disparity between forecast data and predicted data, which had contributed to underachievement at the school, particularly for boys, Pupil Premium students and those with special needs. Large inaccuracies in the data at each assessment point, sometimes by as much as 30 per cent, had led to a number of students not accessing key interventions, which resulted in inadequate outcomes for both students and the school.