New categorisation information published today shows that there has
been an improvement in school performance.
Introduced in 2014, the National School Categorisation System
places schools into one of four colour-coded support categories
to demonstrate the level of support they need - green, yellow,
amber and red.
There are now more schools in the green and yellow categories
when compared to last year. Green schools require just four days
of support and yellow schools receive up to 10 days of support.
This year sees a small change to the factors that decide a
school’s category. Instead of just looking at areas such as
performance, including GCSE results, there is now a much broader
assessment that considers areas such as teacher assessments from
other subjects, wellbeing and the quality of teaching and
learning.
The purpose of including a broader and more sophisticated range
of factors is to understand the kind of support needed by a
school and to give parents a better picture of how a school is
performing.
Out of over 1,500 schools across Wales only 4 appealed against
their category.
In summary:
- 85.3 per cent of primary schools and 68.3 per cent of
secondary schools are now in the green and yellow categories.
This increase from last year continues the upward trend since
2015.
- There has been a very small rise in the proportion of red
schools – those identified as needing most support – by 0.4
percentage points in the primary sector and 2.9 percentage points
in the secondary sector.
- 45 per cent of special schools have been categorised as
green, and needing less support, with no schools categorised as
red and in need of most support.
Cabinet Secretary for Education said:
“I’m pleased to see that more schools are now in the green and
yellow categories, which continues with the upward trend we have
seen over the past few years.
“These schools have a key role to play in supporting other
schools to improve by sharing their expertise, skills and good
practice.
“Last September, I announced that to further raise schools
standards we would make changes to the school categorisation
system following advice from the OECD.
“As well as taking into account a much broader range of factors
about a school’s ability to improve, categorisation now places
more of an emphasis on discussions about how the school could
improve – leading to a tailored programme of support, challenge
and intervention.
“I’m confident that the changes we have made to the
categorisation process are in the best interests of pupils and
will help ensure schools are given the right support at the right
time.”
Notes
Infographics with top-line figures are attached.
Full details of the school categorisation will be available on
the Welsh Government website from 9:30am tomorrow:
http://gov.wales/topics/educationandskills/schoolshome/raisingstandards/schoolcategorisation/?lang=en
