New measures, but Isle of Wight schools still below average

A NEW system for measuring the performance of secondary schools has shown many Isle of Wight schools fall below the national average, even when compared against schools with like-for-like pupil ability.
Until this year, secondary schools have been mainly judged by what proportion of their pupils earn five GCSEs at grade A* to C, including English and maths.
However, this year, two new measures — Progress 8 and Attainment 8 — replace the old performance indicators.
The changes to annual performance tables have been made following years of complaints from teachers who say that judging a school by its results in five GCSEs alone is unfair because it does not take into account the ability of pupils coming into the school — if a high achieving child enters a school, it takes less effort to get them high grades than it does for a lower achieving child.
Progress 8 aims to combat this issue by assessing how well a school is serving its pupils by looking at pupil ability on entry compared with grades at the end.
It looks at results for each pupil in eight GCSE or equivalent subjects from A* to G and then compares the results against other pupils nationally who entered secondary school with the same ability level.
A figure for the school as a whole is then calculated and generally falls somewhere between -1 and 1. It is then placed into one of five categories: well above average, above average, average, below average, and well below average.
At the top of the scale for Progress 8 on the Island is Christ the King College, which achieved average, whereas at the other end of the spectrum was Sandown Bay Academy, with a well below average rating in Progress 8. The Island as a whole was below average.
The other new measure, Attainment 8, looks at results across the eight best subjects for each pupil.
English and maths must be included in the eight, plus three core academic subjects, plus three subjects from any of the Department for Education's list of approved qualifications, which includes vocational subjects.
An average pupil score is calculated for each school and published. The maximum score is 80 and the national average is 48.5 this year.
An anomaly in the table is Ryde School, where pupils do not sit ordinary GCSEs but instead take IGCSEs, which the government does not include in its totals.
At Ryde School, 95 per cent of pupils achieved a grade C or above in English and maths and 76 per cent achieved the English Baccalaureate with IGCSEs.