This month the provisional IDSR Primary school data reports will be released, with the Secondary provisional release in November. For those of us old enough to remember the old Raise online reports, the IDSR can seem a somewhat pithy analysis. However, a cleaner view of data is not always a bad thing. School outcomes data can be sliced and diced in a hundred ways to tell a different story or give a new perspective, but sometimes this curiosity can get in the way of a clear line of sight. Whilst trends, targets and priorities are often best informed through data analysis, when dealing with small or unrepresentative cohorts, the qualitative story can be more informative.

In 2019, the FFT Education Datalab reported that whilst only 1 in 5 senior leaders thought that data collection should be less frequent, 41% of teachers thought that too much data was being gathered to be meaningful. In the same year, the revised inspection framework emphasised a proportionate approach to data drops within the aspect of curriculum implementation explicitly judging whether Leaders understand the limitations of assessment and do not use it in a way that creates unnecessary burdens for staff or learners. Over the last few years, most schools have reduced the number of data collection points during the year, focussing instead on ensuring sufficient time for actions to take place before attempting to measure impact and more importantly on the use of regular informal checks of recall through effective questioning and recap. This makes good sense. Outcomes data is a useful tool, but it is the starting point of a conversation. The difference will be made by using data as a tool to ask the right questions and seek answers in curriculum and pedagogy.

Grappling with school data and its relationship with classroom activity can be a learning journey for middle leaders. Our subject network meetings taking place this term, give curriculum leaders the opportunity to share and learn from each other as well as hear from experts in the field. Please encourage and facilitate this valuable sharing of practice.

We are now only 2 weeks until the October half term, and no doubt you are feeling the pressure of the last 5 weeks. Make sure you take a break this weekend and get out to enjoy what may be the final sight of warm Summer weather for a while.

Stephen Hall

Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning