The Locrating Blog

Attainment 8 and Progress 8 can be quite confusing. In this article, I’ll explain how they work and how to interpret the numbers when looking at and comparing secondary school GCSE results.

As a quick summary, Attainment 8 is a measure of how well pupils have achieved in their GCSE results and Progress 8 is a measure of how those achievements compare with other children in England that started secondary school at the same level. Progress 8 is therefore a measure of how much value a school is adding compared to other schools, i.e. do children who start at the same level, do better or worse at one school compared to another. There are clearly advantages to measuring schools on progress rather than attainment, notably because children all start secondary school at different levels and the more progress they make the better, irrespective of where they started or finished on the grade scale.

Since the 1970s the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and its predecessors have calculated local measures of deprivation in England. The Indices of Deprivation are a unique measure of relative deprivation (or affluence) at a small local area level. We're pleased to announce that we have now added the latest data (2019) to Locrating, which provides an interesting insight into the neighbourhoods where existing school pupils live.

We're quite regularly asked why our catchment indicators do not match exactly the data shown on local authority websites. The short answer is because they are showing slightly different things. The long answer is discussed in this blog post.

It's really interesting to compare admissions data over time, with some clear patterns emerging. Whilst the chances of getting you first choice secondary school appears to have got worse across large swathes of the country in recent years, the opposite appears to be true for primary schools.

Using data that has been provided by the Department of Education and the Office for National Statistics, we have created catchment area indicators for schools in England. By explaining what we have done and how, this post allows you to interpret our catchment maps.

We have two styles of catchment area indicator that can be used either individually or together; summary circles show where the most recent intake of pupils live, whilst detailed catchment breakdowns allow you to look at historical catchment areas and even view areas relating to specific year groups only.

If you are looking for some advice on which A-Level subjects to take in order to have the best chances of gaining a place on your degree course of choice, or if you're not sure what degree would best suit your interests, we recommend having a look at the new Informed Choices website produced by the Russell Group universities.

If your first choice cannot be met, it is likely due to other pupils living closer to the school than you or meeting the admissions criteria more closely than your child, in this case your child will be allocated a place at an alternative school, in the order of your preferences. But you may get offered a school that is not one of your preferences at all.What should you do if the school you have been offered is not the one your were hoping for?

Something I have seen recently is long standing outstanding schools being, sometimes quite severely, downgraded. In fact, Ofsted recently re-inspected forty six outstanding schools and not one retained its top rating; thirty seven were downgraded to “good”, eight were rated “requires improvement” and one became “inadequate”. Why the sudden change?

I had a conversation a while ago with one of our users who said they were finding it difficult to compare state and independent secondary schools. So, after some thought, we came up with an innovative and completely unique solution to aid the process.

In this post we look at the A-Level (and equivalent) measures that can be used to compare pupil performance and progress in secondary schools.

In this post we look at the GCSE (and equivalent) measures that can be used to compare pupil performance and progress in secondary schools.

In this post we look at the Key Stage 2 measures that can be used to compare pupil performance and progress in primary schools.

Finding the right school for your child can be a minefield, often it is a difficult enough decision deciding which schools to put on your application form, let alone the order you should place them in. An understanding of the equal preference system is crucial when making this decision, especially when your preferred school is over-subscribed and 42% of London primary schools are!

State school admissions are about so much more than simply where you live. There just isn’t a magic catchment area that will guarantee your child entry and any online catchment indicator or heat map (including ours) must not be relied upon too heavily. In this post we explore some of the myths surrounding school catchment areas.