The high performing Stowting CofE Primary School was no doubt aided by having just nine pupils in Year Six, one of 13 Kent schools with fewer than 10 pupils in the Year Group, including 100% achievement Water Meadows (A) and Worth (A) primaries. At the other end of the scale Nonington CofE was also the second smallest in Kent, with just six pupils in Year Six. Such small numbers clearly mean each child will influence outcomes directly, making these of limited value. All other schools mentioned in this article had full, or nearly full class groups. 

You can see my 2017 report for  comparison here. Unfortunately, I don’t have one for 2018

15 schools in Kent and four in Medway had all three elements graded Well Above Average, listed below. Four of the Kent schools have been in Special Measures in the past five years with St Mary of Charity CofE rising to an Ofsted Outstanding after academy conversion, with Chantry, Kings Farm and Istead Rise all in Gravesham all rising to Good, and making Gravesham the most represented area in this list. Just two of the schools have an Outstanding Ofsted, St Mary of Charity CofE and Hernhill, near Canterbury. Ide Hill CofE and Fawkham CofE in Sevenoaks come from West Kent; Gateway Primary (A) and Our Lady’s Catholic schools from Dartford;  Oaks Primary (A) and South Borough (A) from Maidstone. Otherwise, apart from the three Gravesham schools, the other six all come from east Kent. In Medway, both Kingfisher (A) and Wayfield (A) have been in Special Measures in the last few years, with Lordswood (A) having been found to Require Improvement by Ofsted, but all three have now been classified Good after academisation.    

Also of special note are: Reculver CofE Primary (A)' recently found Outstanding after academisation by Canterbury Diocesan Trust following Special Measures, with all Progress classifications above average; Royal Rise Primary (A) in Tonbridge, most recent Ofsted placing it in Special Measures before academisation under Cygnus Trust, two Well Above Average levels (and again below).   

After these and the other schools identified in the introduction above, came: Bredgar CofE (A), Sittingbourne; Bredhurst Cof E, Medway border; Herne CofE Junior, Canterbury; Our Lady of Hartley Catholic (A), Longfield; Rodmersham, Sittingbourne; and South Borough (A), Maidstone, all with 94%. Then: Fawkham CofE, Sevenoaks; Folkestone, St Peter’s CofE; Hartlip Endowed CofE, Sittingbourne; Speldhurst CofE, Tunbridge Wells; St Joseph’s Catholic (A), Aylesham; and St Peter’s Catholic (A), Sittingbourne all with 93%. Coincidentally, each of the last five named schools had all three Progress scores only average, from which one can deduce that their high achievements are down to having pupils with high ability also identified at the end of Key Stage One, rather than through development in the next four years.   Again, noteworthy is Royal Rise Primary (A), Tonbridge with 90%. Also showing excellent improvement is Elaine Academy. Elaine, taken over by the Aspiration Federation, has seen a remarkable turnaround from being Medway's lowest performing Primary in 2018, reaching the national target of having 65% of pupils achieving the expected standard in 2019, placing it in the middle of the league table of Medway schools. It has solid Progress grades as well as 13% of pupils achieving a higher standard, well above the Medway average of 9%.

Lowest in Kent was: Nonington, CofE, Dover, with 17% of its six pupils achieving this standard, followed by Leeds and Bromfield Cof E, Maidstone with 23% of its 12 pupils. Then came  Sunny Bank Primary, Sittingbourne (Special Measures in June, subject of a withering report, described here), also with 23%, Archbishop Courtenay CofE (A), Maidstone (previously Special Measures), 27%; and Northdown, Margate, with 30%. Lowest in Medway was All Hallows Primary with 28%. 

Highest performer is once again Stowting CofE, with six of its nine Year Six pupils achieving this level. Next come: Bredhurst CofE with 44%; Gateway (A), Dartford, with 42%; Oaks (A), Maidstone & Valley Invicta at Kings Hill (A), 40%; St Thomas Catholic (A), Sevenoaks, 39%; Finberry (A), Ashford & Our Lady’s Catholic, Dartford, 38%; Preston, Canterbury, 37%; and Manor Community, Dartford, 33%.  33 Kent primaries had no high performers, sharply down from the 121 of 2016.

In Medway, New Horizon’s Children’s Academy (A) was the highest performer, with its first KS2 intake, with 32% high performers, followed by St Benedict’s Catholic with 30%. Of particular note is third placed Temple Mill (A), with 24%, yet another school out of Special Measures, having been assessed as Good by Ofsted last year. Six schools had no high performers, again well down on 2016’s 19. All six are academies, showing this is no panacea.

Under the previous scheme, schools that have a Performance of 65% OR Progress above all of: Reading -5; Writing -7 and Maths -5, are regarded as having reached Floor Level. If both are below this standard, the school could expect unspecified intervention (now replaced by unspecified support) by government, unless the miss is in writing only. 4% of schools nationally were in this category; the number in Kent if the definition were still in place is 12, of which four are academies. At 2.8% this is well below the national average. Five of the Kent schools stand out, as below. Medway has four schools below Floor Level, including the notorious Delce Academy, which is to be removed from its current Academy Trust and transferred to the Inspire Partnership in February. 

Richmond and Knockhall academies were both schools in the disgraced and defunct Lilac Sky Schools Academy Trust and are still clearly struggling to recover.

Shockingly, two of the four lowest Medway schools, Barnsole and Bligh are both part of the previously high flying Barnsole Primary Trust, with Barnsole still having its Outstanding status and having finished top of the parallel Medway Table in 2017. 

Treat all the data outcomes with a certain amount of scepticism. Never forget that schools are under immense pressure to deliver the best possible Key Stage 2 results. The future of individual schools are sometimes at stake and this set of results will lead to some schools being taken over by others, by Multi-Academy Trusts, or even transferred between them. Some headteachers will lose their jobs. Other headteachers will yield under pressure and manipulate outcomes, for example one method can be to reduce Key Stage One outcomes to improve the progress rate through to Key Stage Two.

Government sets performance levels apparently somewhat arbitrarily as a tool to achieve its aims, so it is impossible to say if standards have improved or declined. What is certain is that the pressure to succeed is ever greater, so (1) look at other features of schools important to you than simply these tables. OFSTED performance, although strongly influenced by this data, the ethos of the school, the headteacher, do you see your child fitting in, etc., (2) High attainment performance is an indicator of high ability children in the school or else good progress or both.  Different families will choose different measures as a priority. (3) A sharp difference in progress assessments may be simply due to the teacher of mathematics (for example) having left, been ill or been on maternity leave with the school unable to make alternative arrangements. Find out if this problem still exists or has gone away (4) there appears currently an obsession in some areas over using the number of grammar school successes as a guide to a good school. Untrue and irrelevant. Firstly, this is six years of education away for the child entering a Reception class and many things can happen to change a school in that time. Secondly, success rates are likely to be related to the proportion of high ability children in the school. Thirdly, the tutoring factor which happens outside the school and applies to a high proportion of potential grammar school applicants is of considerable importance and is not reflected in these figures.

Primary school data is now far too complex for many parents to be able to compare schools and I suspect most will ignore it. However, if you put two schools together for comparison, accept all the caveats about poor data, look at what is important for you, if there are marked differences between the two it may prove helpful. But most importantly for many,  bear in mind the enormous pressure on school places in many areas, and you may find you actually have no real choice at all! Sorry.

Has this school failed, or have circumstances conspired to fail it?