By Richard Johnstone | 13 August 2014
Two education trade unions have joined an initiative to develop new school performance league tables in a bid to increase the range of information available to parents.
The Association of School and College Leaders and the National Association of Headteachers, which both represent head teachers and senior staff, said the sector needed to take more responsibility for what parents can access about school performance.
The unions have joined with the independent school and academy group United Learning and the PiXL Club of school leaders to collate the data, which will first be published online this autumn during the school application cycle.
Factors that will be taken into account in the new tables include all GCSE results, including for those who re-sit courses. This element is set to be excluded from the official tables published by the Department for Education from next January.
They will also include more information beyond exam results, such as extra-curricular provision and curriculum, as well as developing measures to reflect teachers’ views about what makes a good school.
ASCL general secretary Brian Lightman said the current tables, which focus on exam results, only told part of the story about school and student achievements.
‘We want to make sure that the performance tables reflect the hard work and effort that students and teachers have put in,’ he said.
‘That is why we are pleased to be involved in helping to create these alternate performance tables that give a fuller picture of achievement.’
Russell Hobby, NAHT general secretary, added that the government’s tables had become a ‘sledgehammer’ serving political aims rather than pupils' needs.
‘This initiative will, over time, give parents stable, accurate and neutral information about schools. It is good to see the school leaders seizing the initiative and building a connection to parents that bypasses all the politics,’ he added.
