The Families of Schools website is available HERE

‘Families of Schools’ is a document which helps primary and secondary schools in the Black Country compare their performance to other schools with similar intakes. It groups primary and secondary schools with similar intakes into 'families'.

It does this by:

• Looking at an average of three years’ prior attainment data,
• Examining pupil deprivation (based on the uptake of free school meals and data from IDACI, the index of income deprivation affecting children). 

Revamped Families of Schools website 

The new version of the Families of Schools website allows schools to compare their impact on pupil achievement with statistically similar schools (intakes with similar prior attainment and context). This resource promotes collaborations between schools to raise standards and improve pupil outcomes.

• The website has the latest Primary and Secondary data (2008 KS2 and KS4 results). As the books are still in production, this is the first opportunity for schools, LAs, Advisers and other stakeholders to see their families with the updated data. This is a good opportunity for them to start analysing and even organising school to school collaboration earlier than has been possible in previous years.

• The website has a new feature allowing users to ‘pick’ their own family from all the schools in the three areas. Data for the custom families can then be displayed in the same layout as the tables in the existing publication. This increases the flexibility of Families of Schools, for instance letting groups of schools that are already collaborating look at their data in this unique format.
 

Click here to look at the website http://fos.dcsf.gov.uk

Primary and Secondary Families

There are 18 primary and 10 secondary families.

This year's edition for secondary schools shows GCSE results with English and maths, as well as a contextual value-added measure.

There are also contextual families, focusing on English as an additional language, and on mobility. They will enable primary and secondary schools that have significant proportions of pupils with these characteristics to compare themselves and share their experiences with other similar schools.

Openness among Black Country schools

Families of Schools has promoted openness among Black Country schools and challenged them to share best practice and look at joint solutions. We encourage schools to use the Families of Schools documents for self-evaluation and as a management tool to evaluate school performance. We have worked successfully in London to encourage benchmarking between schools and hope to continue this through the Black Country. Ofsted’s latest report on London schools praises Families of Schools, recognising it as a useful resource.

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Provisional Data Tool

The Black Country Challenge together with Fischer Family Trust are piloting a tool combining Families of Schools data groups and FFT Subject Specific CVA on provisional data. To acces this site please click HERE If you do not have the password please contact Mick Marks

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Families of Schools seminar

Families of Schools brings with it the opportunity for all secondary schools across the Black Country to benefit from the additional resources available through the Black Country Challenge. Click below to download the presentation slides that were used in the Families of Schools Secondary Network Seminar, which took place on the 22nd April at the Village Hotel in Dudley.