Value Added Measures

How well do our children achieve? How does Ofsted judge us?

At Wallop Primary School, we aspire for all our children to achieve their full potential through providing them with a safe and supportive environment in which to learn. Through the provision of excellent teaching and learning in every classroom, across all areas of the curriculum, our children become independent, resilient learners, who, as well as being literate and numerate, have a solid educational foundation across all areas of the curriculum. Our children are well prepared for the next stage of their education, taking with them memories of a happy, inclusive school.

In order that our children get the best out of the education we provide, we carefully monitor the progress our children make, and how they are achieving against their peers at both borough and national level.

Pupil achievement (the standards that pupils have reached together with their progress) is judged in two ways:

•  Attainment – this refers to the standards, or levels, that the children reach. Currently, this is done by assessing the work of children at school against national expected levels (see download to the left of this page for an explanation of 'levels' and national assessment). By the end of year 6 (the end of Key Stage 2) the national expectation is for children to be a level 4.
•  Progress – this refers to how well pupils have progressed in their learning (i.e. added to their knowledge) from their starting point.

Our Ofsted Inspections

As a maintained school, we are subject to inspections by Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills). The aim of these inspections is to 'judge the quality of education provided in the school' (Ofsted Inspection Handbook, September 2013). In order to make this judgement, inspectors look at four key areas (reference as previous):

• the achievement of pupils at the school
• the quality of teaching in the school
• the behaviour and safety of pupils at the school
• the quality of leadership in, and management of the school

Progress through KS2 (i.e. from the end of year 2 to the end of year 6)

The Government looks carefully at the progress that children have made through KS2 - i.e. from where they are in year 2, how much more do they learn by the time they are ready to leave primary school at the end of year 6.

This measure of progress is called the Value Added Measure, and is based on progress in Reading, Writing and Maths. The individual pupil scores are averaged to produce the school level VA measure. This number is presented as a number based around 100, which indicates the value the school has added on average for their pupils. Measures above 100 represent schools where pupils on average made more progress than similar pupils nationally, while measures below 100 represent schools where pupils made less progress.