The pace of change in the education sector is being increased under the agenda brought in by the new Government.  Alongside changes to structures, in the form of free schools, academies and university technical colleges, plans for altering the curriculum be it to an English Bacc or with a focus on vocational and technical studies are beginning to take shape; couple this with a realignment of the role of local and central government and schools and we are living in the midst of significant change.

The Government has retained its commitment to raising the participation age enabling more young people to benefit from training and education as 17 and 18 year olds. It’s therefore an appropriate time to reflect on what makes good key stage 5 provision and what we can learn to take into the new world.

Learning Plus UK has been working with three city local authorities analysing the impact of different strategies on raising performance at Level 3.  Each of the authorities were different, two of them with a substantially lower starting rate compared with the national average.  The other benefited from above average student performance when entering key stage 5.

Our work involved looking at what strategies had been adopted and the impact these had had on performance.  All three local authorities had made significant strides over the last 3 years which was reflected in increasing performance of young people at level 3.

A number of similar issues arose from each of these authorities centred around good use of data and intelligence.  Data which ensures that young people have the right advice and information at an early stage to guide their decisions about appropriate next steps.  Intelligence that helps institutions understand their areas of strength and their areas of weakness.  Collaboration that brings people together through networks and conferences and informally to focus on what makes good subject teaching at post-16.

Central to this then, is the use of performance data, targets and intelligence to understand the student and their institution coupled with support, networks and understanding that makes this data ‘real’, that makes it a key lever to drive performance upwards.

Our Final LPUK Datadashboards© have just been sent to every local authority in the country.  Each pack enables those who support schools and colleges access to a unique set of analyses bringing together performance data from national datasets.  Looking at a range of different performance indicators, it gives a thorough analysis of post-16 provision and highlights good practice and areas of weakness.  Through tools such as our Curriculum Heatmap© we can shine a light on improvement trends and how these vary across years and across providers. 

However, this data is only of use when supported by training and understanding through bringing people together to analyse, review and share.  Our training is being rolled out and our networks continue to flourish. Creating the spaces to bring practitioners together to use data in a targeted and appropriate way must be of even greater importance in the new education world that faces us.  In a time of change, it becomes even more critical to know what that change is and how it can impact on the futures of young people.