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Watergall Primary School
- The school
- The challenge
- The process
- The issues
- The impact
- The future
- Tips for other schools
- School quick facts
- School contextual data
- Data management quick facts
The school
Watergall Primary School is situated in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
It is a highly inclusive school and draws on an area of greater than average social disadvantage. Twenty-three per cent have English as an additional language and 40 per cent have special needs.
About 40 per cent of children are eligible for free school meals and, during each school year, about 10 per cent leave and are replaced by a roughly equal inward migration.
The 2004 Ofsted inspection report comments on the good monitoring of progress and assessment procedures which helps to focus pupils’ attention on their weaknesses and strengths.
You can view the Ofsted report and performance tables by following the links on the right hand side of the screen or by visiting
The challenge
The school was challenged to use data to pinpoint below average attainment upon joining the school and remediation through high quality teaching and learning and booster sessions.
It was also challenged to encourage children to build on improvements. It did this by constantly making clear what the children need to do to reach the next sub-level and by enlisting parental support and demonstrating their child’s progress and sharing forthcoming learning targets.
The process
Levels in core and foundation subjects are awarded in assessments made around half-term rather than in everyday marking. Data is entered and retrieved from SIMS Assessment Manager by secretarial staff, thus avoiding bureaucratic overload.
From year 1 all teachers receive printouts of their teaching groups with performance targets using national curriculum sub-levels to identify who will need daily or weekly support or extension.
Children have both a ‘forecast’ value and a ‘challenge’ value. The latter is based upon the teacher’s professional judgement, but is typically a sub-level or two above the forecast.
Children at the level’s borderline are given extra support from teaching assistants and others, to get them across the boundary and sustain the momentum of constant improvement. They may also be mentored by the leadership team who offer praise and encouragement and negotiate short-term action plans to get them to the next sub-level.
Individual data from SIMS Assessment Manager informs the School Improvement Plan.
This often contains very challenging targets. Targets in the school improvement plan are broken down for different purposes. The use of SIMS Assessment Manager allows data to be viewed at individual, class or year group level. The leadership team can identify issues regarding particular year groups or categories of pupil. Year coordinators can spend less time finding out what the performance levels of children are and more time making sure that resources are being focused to bring about success.
Teachers are aware of the levels that children are aiming for and are able to focus on planning appropriate teaching and learning. Learning support assistants, and the bilingual instructor, routinely access data on special needs or ethnic minority children.
The issues
It took three years for the use of data to become embedded in the mindset of all teachers.
Collecting data changes nothing. It is the dissemination of data in digestible form and the expectation it will be used to focus on addressing learning needs that makes the difference.
Schools need to employ properly trained support staff to process and analyse the data so that they can be proactive in helping teachers use data.
Children with low targets may be de-motivated. The focus must not be on the national curriculum level. It is about getting children to make bite-sized progress towards the next sub-level which is always possible and always a cause for celebration.
Children’s attainment data may be used in teacher performance management forming a part of the evidence-base for discussions about areas of focus for the coming year.
This has to be done in a way where the focus is upon acquisition of further skills and strategies to raise pupil achievement.
The impact
Despite challenging circumstances, the children are proud of their school and show ownership of their progress. Likewise, considerable efforts are made to build support for parents both for their own child’s learning and with regard to the school’s behavioural, anti-bullying and anti-racism policies.
The school improvement measure in the national performance tables has climbed considerably. Between 1999 and 2003 it rose from 199 to 229. The school’s value-added measure for 2003 was 101.3.
Results have risen sharply over the past few years. This is in no small measure and is due to intelligent use of data. Impediments to success are identified and a committed staff of teachers, instructors and teaching assistants tackle the issues flagged by data within a whole school framework for improvement.
Children know what their targets are and have targets in the front of their books. They are aware of some of the things they need to do to achieve them. They enjoy meeting challenging but realistic targets, and telling their parents that they have done so.
They know that they may receive teaching assistant or teacher support for a period of time, for example twice a week, to help reach a target level and that the teaching assistant may then focus on another student.
According to several teaching staff:
‘It is the commitment of the staff of the school that has provided the engine for improvement – but the data has been the fuel that has kept the engine turning.’
‘The main benefit is the increased clarity of focus. Every teacher receives lists with target and attainment data and is expected to focus upon how every child can progress and how learning support staff time can be most effectively used to help them achieve steps towards the next target level.’
‘The sub-levels are very helpful when talking to parents as we can make clear their child’s progress and say how they can encourage them.’
‘It means that straight away you know what level the pupil is working at so you can focus the work in a manner that takes them towards their next target.’ (Bilingual instructor.)
The future
The school intends to use performance data analysis to adapt teaching to the needs of the more able.
Tips for other schools
Advice to schools in a similar situation, looking to set up their own systems, would be to:
- pilot, evaluate and refine procedures so you have positive evidence of benefit when launching a whole school policy
- plan thoroughly how to communicate the ideas and systems using meeting time and training days
- use IT, but stick to simple targets and measures of improvement
- ensure that those involved in teaching provide and use data, but use secretarial staff to enter and process it
- embed explicit outcome targets into the School Improvement Plan
- celebrate each other’s success and encourage a team effort.
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School quick facts
| School quick facts | |
| School name: | Watergall Primary School |
| School type: | Primary |
| School category: | |
| School LA: | Peterborough |
| School last inspected: | March 2004 |
| School location: | Urban |
| School address: |
Watergall, Bretton, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, PE3 8NX |
| Headteacher: | Sue Pitcher |
| Pupil age range: | 5-11 |
| Pupil gender: | Male and female |
| Pupil background: | |
| Pupil mobility: | |
| Special education needs (SEN): | High levels |
| Free school meals (FSM): | Above average |
| English as an additional language (EAL): | High levels |
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School contextual data
| School contextual data | |||
| Context | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| NOR | 305 | 287 | 279 |
| FSM % | 40 | ||
| % SEN pupils with statement | 2 | 1.4 | 1.8 |
| % SEN pupils without statement | 39 | 43 | 35 |
| % Authorised absence | 7.4 | 7.2 | 6.7 |
| % Unauthorised absence | 0.4 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Pupil turnover | 61% | ||
| Results | |||
| % Achieving level 2 or above in KS1 reading | |||
| % Achieving level 2 or above in KS1 writing | |||
| % Achieving level 2 or above in KS1 mathematics | |||
| % Achieving level 4 or above in KS2 English | 56 | 43 | 62 |
| % Achieving level 4 or above in KS2 mathematics | 50 | 48 | 82 |
| % Achieving level 4 or above in KS2 science | 83 | 89 | 85 |
Note, that where possible, these figures have been taken from the Performance Tables website.
Data management quick facts
| Data organisation quick facts | |
| Tool | Further information |
| Pupil Achievement Tracker | www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/performance/ |