How can we use our data effectively? Garry Freeman advises on collecting, managing and analysing your school’s data so that it is meaningful, relevant and useful for your teachers

The collection, analysis and use of data is one area of our work in schools that so many educational professionals know is a substantial turn-off, a huge disincentive, for a huge number of practitioners.

School leaders at all levels need always to remember what it’s like to teach for five hours or more a day, to have a keen grasp of the pressures faced by most teachers, and to understand that the most effective use of data is that which keeps it simple.

A good principle to live by is the acronym of COUNT:

We also should remember that we need to relate data, particularly hard data, the facts and figures of school performance which have become the staple diet of performance analysis over the last 10 years, to the circumstances of individual teachers if we expect them to use it effectively. How can we do this? Some golden rules include:

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