Benchmarking, Compliance & Performance

Introduction

To ensure communities are served by a school that they can be proud of and ensures their children can be the best they can be, English schools are held to account for a wide range of benchmark measures and statutory reporting requirements.

The table below provides a brief overview of information available here.

Accountability Area	Guide
Ofsted	The current Ofsted inspection report is accessible. There are links avail;able to previous Ofsted reports and to the Ofsted school inspection guidance.
SATs Achievement	The SATs achievement page details the outcomes from national tests. These take place in Year 6 in May each year. They are sat, except for the writing assessment, under formal exam conditions. The papers are stored securely and sent for external marking at the end of the test week. Schools typically receive the results for the Y6 cohort in July. There are two sources of information. The first is the government 'compare school performance' website. The website enables the reader to find, review and compare school in England. The data may then be used to compare and contrast a range of benchmark measures in schools. It is important to note that the data may be unrepresentative i.e. on some measures there is significant error built in, such as progress from Infant to Junior Schools. Caution is therefore needed when interpreting the data, and we would recommend te data is used as a basis to identify key areas for further consideration rather than answers in themselves. Further down the page contains an overview of Y6 outcomes using school internal data.
School Context	Each year senior leaders review a wide range of data across 17 areas. By reviewing data trends in these areas leaders are able to confidently set the strategic and operational direction of the school. This in turn underpins school performance. The page is arranged firstly by the top 10 areas for consideration based on the most recent data. Secondly, a detailed overview of each area is published.
Statutory Compliance	The compliance and benchmarking page brings together the wide range of school comparison and benchmarking websites available to support a review of school performance.
School Improvement Planning	All schools seek to maintain what the do well and seek opportunities to improve. Leaders and governors at Chesswood expect to maintain a school experience and achievement in line or above that of the best school sin England. Our whole school foci provide an overview of the multiple areas that we are working to fine tune and optimise. It should be noted that in the overwhelming majority of areas we seek to improve from good to exemplary taking many small steps to ensure the Chesswood team can implement and embed the improvements for years to come.
Self Evaluation	School leaders undertake routine quality assurance to ensure all areas of school leadership and management are the 'best they can be'. School self evaluation enables leaders to determine and publish their professional judgements against multiple areas. Information on this page will support school accountability in response to school inspection.
School Finance	School finance underpins school achievement for all children. Choices that school leaders make directly and indirectly affect the outcomes for every pupil. As such, we believe we should be transparent regarding with the school community in relation to the school revenue and how we choose to structure its expenditure. We include current financial year revenue, expenditure planning, access to consistent financial reporting, financial benchmarking report, financial monitoring report and the school financial value standard report.
Pupil Premium	Local authority-maintained schools must publish a pupil premium statement on their school’s website. The purpose of this is to enable parents and governors to understand how we are using the pupil premium funding; setting out our strategy to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
PE Sports Grant	Schools must publish: the amount of premium received a full breakdown of how it has been spent (or will be spent) what impact the school has seen on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment how the improvements will be sustainable in the future the percentage of pupils within their year 6 cohort for academic year 2020 to 2021 that can do each of the following: swim competently, confidently, and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres use a range of strokes effectively (for example front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations
Catch Up Premium	Similar to the pupil premium, schools should use the sum available to them as a single total even though funding is calculated on a per pupil or per place basis. Funding will only be available for the 2020 to 2021 academic year and will not be added to schools’ baselines in calculating future years’ funding allocations. Schools should use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils’ education recovery in line with the curriculum expectations in the actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak guidance. While schools can use their funding in a way that suits their cohort and circumstances, they are expected to use this funding for specific activities which will help pupils catch up on missed learning. Schools should particularly focus on disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils as we know they have been most affected. School leaders must be able to show they are using the funding to support their pupils’ educational recovery in line with the curriculum expectations in the actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak guidance. Governors and trustees should scrutinise schools’ approaches to catch-up, including their plans for and use of catch-up funding. This should include consideration of whether schools are spending this funding in line with their catch-up priorities, and ensuring appropriate transparency for parents.