Welcome to the 2014 Real Schools Guide - the second edition of the most comprehensive guide ever to state funded secondaries.
Our unique rating system uses 21 different measures , put together from the latest publicly available data and broken into four categories – attainment, teaching, attendance, and finances.
National league tables only look at GCSE results, which means schools that help all pupils make progress, but only get slightly better than average exam scores overall, may be overlooked.
Our system aims to move beyond such a crude measurement and give parents a better idea of which schools will help their child prosper, no matter what their background may be.
The guide factors in other things as well like whether all pupils are making progress, what attendance is like, the ratio of teachers to pupils, and how stable the school's finances are.
Attainment is worth 30 per cent of the total score. This based on pupils’ GCSE performance in 2013 and how it compares to 2012 and 2008. We measure whether a school is getting top marks, and if it is managing to improve yearonyear.
Teaching is worth 40 per cent of the score. It is based on how well different types of pupil do in comparison to expectations, and how well the school does at closing the gender gap. It also looks at how big the pupil/teacher ratio is in comparison to the national average, as well as teachers’ average salaries.
Following feedback for last year's guide, we have tweaked the 'behaviour' section and renamed it 'attendance' to better reflect the data used.
The attendance score is based on absence rates, looking at both overall levels of sessions missed as well as unauthorised and persistent absence at the school. It is worth 15 per cent of the total score.
Finances is also worth 15 per cent, and is based on the schools budget per pupil compared to average, and how often over the past five years the school has seen its reserves dip into the red.
Different measures are given weightings based on how important they are likely to be to parents – so the percentage of children achieving 5 GCSEs at A* to C, including English and Maths, is worth a maximum of nine points. The value added score is worth 14, while the change in pupil/teacher ratio over the past academic year is worth just two.
Scores are worked out by giving the best performing school in each category top marks, with all other schools receiving points adjusted according to their comparative performance. Schools where performance is below average can receive negative points up to a maximum of –0.5.
Scores for each measure are then added together to get a total score for each category, and all the scores are added together to get a total.
This total is adjusted to ensure no school can receive a negative total.
Stars are allocated by rating all the scores in order for each indicator and then splitting schools into five equally sized groups.
Not all schools have data for every measure. Some schools are so tiny that the data has been suppressed to avoid identifying pupils.
Schools are not penalised for not having data, and only schools with below average performance can receive negative points. However, not having data means a school cannot score extra points for that measure, potentially putting them behind schools that do not have missing data.
Schools that only opened after September 2013 are not rated in the guide.
Don't forget to pick up your Real Schools Guide supplement on Thursday.