How to read the tables

This section explains how to read the information in the tables.

School particulars

The tables give the following details for each school:

• address and telephone number;
• whether the school has a Charter Mark (if so, the symbol « will be shown);
• what type of school it is (community, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided, foundation, community special or foundation special); and
• the main age range of the pupils in the school.

Background information

These columns provide further information about the school that you might find useful. They show:

• the total number of pupils of all ages (including those in any nursery classes) on the school register on 16 January 2003;
• the number of pupils at the school who reached the age of 11 during the school year. This number should normally be the same or nearly the same as the number of eligible pupils. If there is a big difference you may want to ask the school's head teacher for further information;
• the total number and percentage of pupils of all ages in mainstream schools with statements of SEN. These statements describe any learning difficulties that pupils have, and specify the extra help or equipment, that they need. Around 3% of school pupils (both special and mainstream) nationally have statements; and
• the total number and percentage of pupils of all ages in mainstream schools with SEN, but without statements. These are other pupils registered as having SEN but whose schools meet the pupils' needs without a statement. These may include pupils on School/Early Years Action or School/Early Years Action Plus.

Some pupils with SEN are academically able. But schools face challenges in achieving Level 4 at KS2 for many pupils with SEN and some pupils with SEN will not be able to achieve Level 4 at KS2. The information on the numbers of pupils with SEN in each school helps you take this into account when looking at the school's results. These columns will be blank for special schools because all pupils in special schools have statements of SEN.

Performance information KS1 to KS2 Value Added and KS2 Test Results

This part of the tables shows KS1 to KS2 value added and KS2 test results for each school.

Which pupils are included?

The information is based on all pupils in each school that were eligible for KS2 assessment in the 2002/2003 school year.

All pupils - including those with SEN - are eligible for assessment under the National Curriculum when they reach the end of KS2. Most will be aged 11 by the end of the school year but some will be younger or older. All eligible pupils are included in the tables regardless of whether or not they sat the test (for example, because a pupil was absent or disapplied).

The results for some schools have been adjusted in respect of pupils who have recently arrived from overseas with little or no English. The Government accepts that these pupils will not do their best in the tests until they have improved their English language skills and are more familiar with the school curriculum in this country.

Pupils have been disregarded from the figures where: the pupil was admitted to the school for the first time on or after the start of the 2001/2002 school year; they arrived from overseas prior to their admission; and their first language is not English.

The KS1 to KS2 Value Added Measure

What do we mean by value added?

Some pupils will always find it difficult to do well in assessment tests. It may be, for example, that they have significant SEN. But all pupils are capable of making progress and it is important that schools are given recognition for the work that they do with all their pupils.

We have now developed a way of measuring the progress that individual pupils have made between taking assessment tests when they are generally aged 7 and in Year 2 (KS1) and assessment tests when they are generally aged 11 and in Year 6 (KS2). We call this the value added measure. Value added measures are intended to allow fairer comparisons between schools with different pupil intakes.

For example, school A might show high percentages of pupils achieving Level 4 and above, while school B shows lower percentages. But in value added terms, the pupils at school B may have made more progress than other pupils who were performing at the same level at KS1, and therefore have a higher value added 'score' than school A.

The KS1 to KS2 value added measure

Each pupil's value added score is based on comparing their KS2 performance with the median - or middle - performance of other pupils with the same or similar results at KS1. The individual scores are averaged for the school to give a score that is represented as a number based around 100. This indicates the value the school has added on average for their pupils. For further information on how a value added score is calculated for a pupil and how the value added measure is calculated for a school please refer to the Value added technical information section.

The coverage indicator

The coverage column shows the percentage of pupils eligible for KS2 assessment that are included in the value added calculation and gives some indication of schools where the value added measure may be unrepresentative. A low coverage indicator means that information was not available to calculate the value added scores of many of the school's pupils, and so these pupils could not be included in the value added calculation. The availability of better quality prior attainment data in future years will mean that more pupils will be included in the calculation. Where coverage is less than 50%, the value added measure and the associated stability indicator have not been published.

The stability indicator

The stability column shows the percentage of pupils eligible for KS2 assessment included in the value added calculation who took both their KS1 and KS2 tests at the same school. A low stability indicator means that a high proportion of the pupils eligible for the KS2 tests have joined the school since the end of KS1.

The stability indicator for junior schools will be shown as NA as none of the pupils in junior schools will have been able to take the KS1 tests at the school. A junior school normally takes pupils aged between 7 and 11 and covers Years 3-6. Therefore, they will have had no pupils in Year 2 to take the KS1 tests.

Interpretation of a school's value added measure

The value added scores are shown as a measure based around 100. Scores above 100 represent schools where pupils on average made more progress than similar pupils nationally, while scores below 100 represent schools where pupils made less progress.

For KS1 to KS2 value added, a measure of 101 means that on average each of the school's pupils made one term's more progress between KS1 and KS2 than the median - or middle value - for pupils with similar KS1 attainment. Conversely, a score of 99 means that the school's pupils made a term's less progress.

The degree of significance that can be attached to any particular school's value added measure depends, among other factors, on the number of pupils included in the value added calculation. The smaller the number of pupils, the less confidence can be placed on the value added measure as an indicator of whether the effectiveness of a school is significantly above or below average.

Mainstream Schools

As a guide:

• at KS1 to KS2, for schools with 30 or more pupils in the value added measure, measures of 99.1 to 100.9 represent broadly average performance, while for schools with 50+ pupils, measures of 99.3 to 100.7 are broadly average.

When comparing the measures for two schools a similar effect holds:

• at KS1 to KS2 when comparing schools with cohorts of about 30 pupils, differences of up to 1.3 should not be regarded as significant, while for schools with about 50 pupils, differences up to 1.0 should not be regarded as significant.

Special schools

Particular care should be taken with the results for special schools and other schools where cohort sizes are small. For example, for special schools with 11 pupils included in the value added measure, only measures of below 98.8 or above 101.2 are likely to be significantly different from the average. When comparing special schools with cohorts of about 11 pupils (remembering that the VA measure and KS2 results are not published for schools with 10 pupils or less) differences of up to 1.7 should not be regarded as statistically significant.

For special schools:
at KS1 to KS2, for special schools with 20 pupils in the value added measure, scores of 99.1 to 100.9 are broadly average.

When comparing the measures for two schools:
at KS1 to KS2, when comparing special schools with cohorts of about 20 pupils, differences of up to 1.2 should not be regarded as statistically significant.

By looking at the table below, you can see how the VA measure for a school compares nationally.

KS2 test results

This part of the tables shows:

the number of pupils who were at the end of KS2 and, therefore, eligible to be assessed in May 2003. All pupils - including those with SEN - are eligible for assessment under the National Curriculum when they reach the end of KS2. Most pupils will be aged 11 by the end of the school year. But some will be older or younger.

the number and percentage of eligible pupils with SEN, both with and without statements at January 2003;

the percentage of eligible pupils in each subject who achieved Level 4 or above in the English, mathematics and science tests; and

the percentage of eligible pupils in each subject who achieved Level 5 in the English, mathematics and science tests.

Level 4 is the level of achievement expected of pupils at the end of KS2. If pupils achieve Level 5 at KS2, it means those pupils are achieving beyond expectations.

Percentage of pupils absent or disapplied

Each school's results at Level 4 or above are based on the results of all pupils at the end of KS2, including those who were absent on the day of the test or disapplied from the National Curriculum. A school's results may have been affected by eligible pupils who were absent or disapplied, because such pupils are included in the calculations even though they did not achieve a test level. To help you take this into account, the percentage of eligible pupils who were absent or disapplied is shown alongside the percentage achieving Level 4 or above and Level 5. The higher the percentage of pupils absent or disapplied, the more a school's results may have been affected by pupils with no test results.

Average point score

The average point score provides a fuller picture of the KS2 achievements of pupils of all abilities. It allows for easier discrimination between schools with similar percentages, showing those schools whose pupils mostly fall below Level 4, or those who exceed that level. For example, a score of 30 would mean that, on average, pupils achieved more than Level 4 but less than Level 5. For a school with 100% of pupils achieving Level 4 or above in all three subjects a score of 30 would tell you that a proportion of pupils have achieved Level 5 or above in some or all of the tests.

The average point score is calculated by using the formula:

The total points for each subject are calculated by awarding each pupil a number of points, according to the following table, and then adding the total points together. This gives you the total points for a subject.

The number of eligible pupils for each subject does not include those pupils that have been absent or disapplied.

See the following table for the points awarded per subject per pupil.

Improvement Measure

The tables show how the achievements of pupils in each mainstream school have changed over the past four years. This is signified by a bar chart which shows the aggregate of the three percentages of pupils achieving Level 4 or above in the English, mathematics and science tests in each of the years 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Because 2003 is the third year that the results of pupils in special schools have been published in the primary school performance tables, there is only three year's worth of historical data available for special schools. We will not be publishing the improvement measure for special schools until a time series of four years' data becomes available.

Absence record for pupils of compulsory school age

The tables show the levels of authorised and unauthorised absence for day pupils of compulsory school age (5-16).

Authorised absence is absence with permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes absences for which a satisfactory explanation has been provided (e.g. illness).

Unauthorised absence is absence without permission from a teacher or other authorised representative of the school. This includes all unexplained or unjustified absences.

The information relates to pupil absences in the 2002/2003 school year up to and including Friday 23 May 2003. Boarding pupils are not included. The first column shows the number of day pupils in this age range. The second and third columns show the percentage of half days missed as a result of:

authorised absence; and

unauthorised absence.

If we have not received complete information from a school, 'No information received' is shown in the relevant columns. 'Not applicable' applies to boarding schools with no day pupils. In the cases of schools that are part boarding, the published statistics relate only to the school's day pupils and may not represent the levels of absence in the school as a whole.

Symbols

In some places one of the following symbols may be shown instead of results:

<

means that the school had 10 or fewer pupils eligible for KS2 assessment at the time of the 2003 tests. Results are not shown because of the risk of individual pupils' results being identified; or
that no absence data is shown where the school has 10 or fewer day pupils of compulsory school age on roll;

>

is shown for the VA measure and stability indicator where schools have less than 50% coverage;

X

means that the school failed to provide the test results or absence data;

+

means that test results and/or the VA measure (and associated stability and coverage indicators) are unavailable for reasons beyond the school's control. Readers of the tables should contact the school for full information on estimates of the test results that were expected to be achieved;

NA

means that no results were published for the year in question, or value added information is not applicable, e.g. stability indicator for schools without an infant department.

~

means that the school had less than 0.05% of pupils with SEN or less than 0.05% unauthorised absence;

#

means that an absence return is not required (boarding schools and new schools which opened after the start of the academic year);

means that the school has been awarded the Charter Mark.

Local and national averages

The top of each LEA page shows:

the average figures for all maintained schools (including special schools) in each local education authority area; and

the average figures for all schools (including independent schools) in England.

You may wish to compare the results of individual schools with these local and national averages.

How the tables were compiled

School details, test results and background information were checked with or provided by schools during September 2003.

If a school did not confirm that it had checked the test results and/or background information, the letter R or B (or both) appears after the age range.