Scheme Closure: frequently asked questions
Why has the scheme closed?
The scheme has achieved what it set out to do. But the landscape has changed since the scheme was introduced with far fewer failing schools and many more high achievers — standards are getting better year on year. No initiative lasts forever and the time has come to end the scheme.
In addition, the scheme evaluation shows that there is no real evidence to suggest that the scheme has had a positive impact on teaching and learning, and school improvement.
Funding — £60 million per year - for the scheme was approved as part of Spending Review 2000 to support the annual allocation of funds in 2001, 2002 and 2003. No dedicated funds were available beyond 2003 and Ministers have concluded that it would not be appropriate to divert further funds for additional years of the Scheme.
Round three: frequently asked questions
Why did my school receive an award?
In round three, the award-winning schools were selected in one of three ways:
- For the great majority of schools, awards have been based on Key Stage tests/tasks or GCSE/GNVQ results. For rapid improvement awards schools were divided into Key Stage groups and ranked by the difference between their average points score in 1999 and 2002. Awards were given to the highest-ranking schools in each group. High performance awards were based on comparing schools’ results in a single year, schools were subdivided into Autumn Package benchmark groups based on the proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and ranked by their average points score in 2002. Awards were given to the highest-ranking schools in each band. The average points score cut off points for awards are shown below.
- For schools without test or exam results (nursery schools), or where aggregated results do not provide sufficiently reliable performance indicators (special schools, pupil referral units, primary schools with 10 or fewer pupils in the relevant year group), awards were based on nominations by chief education officers or heads against specified standards. These nominations were assessed by panels with expert knowledge of the particular type of school. To view the Scheme Nomination Leaflet, click here.
- Every school leaving special measures in the 2001/2002 school year has also received an award.
What are the cut off points for winning an award?
Cut off Points for award winning schools are as follows:
Rapid improvement (22.5% of the 30% of award winners – for round three that comparison was between 1999 average point score and 2002 average point score):
- KS1 – 1.2
- KS2 – 1.6
- KS3 – 2.2
- GCSE – 3.9
High Performance (7.5% of the 30% award winners – for round three a comparison of schools in similar circumstances in 2002):
|
Band: |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
|
KS1 |
18 |
17.3 |
16.7 |
16.1 |
15.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
KS2 |
30.5 |
29.5 |
28.8 |
28.2 |
28.1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
KS3 |
39.0 |
37.3 |
36.3 |
35.5 |
34.0 |
32.3 |
31.3 |
46.4 |
36.0 |
33.5 |
32.9 |
|
GCSE |
56.4 |
51.0 |
48.3 |
45.5 |
42.6 |
40.1 |
40.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
Grammar |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
71.8 |
|
|
|
|
SM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
49.2 |
40.8 |
35.7 |
|
Band: |
% Free School Meals |
|||
|
Primary |
Secondary |
Grammar Schools |
Secondary Moderns |
|
|
1 |
0 – 8% |
0 – 5% |
|
|
|
2 |
<8 – 20% |
<5 – 9% |
|
|
|
3 |
<20 – 35% |
<9 – 13% |
|
|
|
4 |
<35 – 50% |
<13 – 21% |
|
|
|
5 |
<50+% |
<21 – 35% |
|
|
|
6 |
|
<35 – 50% |
|
|
|
7 |
|
<50+% |
|
|
|
8 |
|
|
All FSMs |
|
|
9 |
|
|
|
0 – 13% |
|
10 |
|
|
|
<13 – 21% |
|
11 |
|
|
|
<21 – 50+% |
We are a very good school/Beacon school but still didn’t get an award. Why?
School Achievement Awards are not for all-round excellence. Many award-winning schools are very good all-round. But others may have considerable scope for further improvement. What they have in common is that they achieved good results last year compared with their own previous performance or other similar schools. That is worth celebrating.
About half of all Beacon schools have won awards. The fact that others have not won an award does not detract from their Beacon status in any way. The selection criteria for Beacon status are different from and broader than those for School Achievement Awards, including OFSTED judgements and sustained high performance over several years. School Achievement Awards focus on test and exam results in particular years.
Why do schools coming out of special measures get an award?
This scheme recognises the exceptional effort staff have to make to secure a school’s recovery from Special Measures and rewards this achievement.
Why are awards based on Key Stage results, and not OfSTED / PANDA results?
While pupils’ test and exam results are by no means the whole story, they are a very important aspect of a school’s performance. So the main reason that the School Achievement Awards Scheme focuses on these results is to celebrate and reward success in this area. The other reason is purely practical. The Scheme has to look at all the 24,000 or so maintained schools in England every year. This means that, wherever possible, awards must be based on the quantitative performance data collected by the Department.
It is also important to note that Ofsted inspections are not made to every school every year so those schools, which had not recently been inspected, would be disadvantaged by this approach.
Why do three quarters of awards go to schools who have improved the most?
The main purpose of the School Achievement Awards Scheme is to reward schools that have significantly improved their results. That''s why three quarters of the awards are for rapid improvement. The rest are for good results compared with other schools in similar circumstances – high performance.
Why does the DfES use 1999 and 2002 as the improvement period?
Relatively few schools — at any level of performance — show continuous improvement year after year. Ministers took the decision that a four year improvement period was sufficient for improvement to be judged.
Why does the DfES use Free School Meals bands when looking at high performance?
There is a well-established association between the socio-economic characteristics of schools’ intakes and pupil attainment. At the moment, the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is the best indicator nationally available of these characteristics. That’s why we use it for the awards based on high performance.
What about Value Added?
We agree that value-added measures based on individual pupils’ prior attainment is a better way of comparing schools’ performance, and we are committed to converting the scheme to a value-added basis as quickly as possible. In round three, value added data could only be used to select secondary schools for awards based on high performance. This is because we are now in a transitional period, and national pupil-linked data is not yet available for all schools across the relevant time period. This would account for approximately 4% of all award winning schools.
After careful consideration, instead of changing the criteria for a small number of schools, we felt it fairer and preferable to ensure the scheme retains as much consistency as possible in evaluating whether schools are eligible for an award. We have therefore decided to continue to use APS (average point scores) data to select all award-winning schools in round three.
What about schools with high levels of SEN / EAL / mobility, are they not disadvantaged?
Three quarters of awards are for rapid improvement. There is no reason why schools with high levels of SEN, EAL or mobility should not be able to improve as quickly or as often as other schools.
The relationship between SEN / EAL / mobility and results is by no means direct or simple. However, once free school meals have been taken into account, the different levels of SEN / EAL / mobility have relatively little effect on results.
What is the cost of running the scheme?
The running costs of the Scheme are about £300,000 — half of one percent of the total budget.
Why is there a nomination process?
For a minority of schools Key Stage results held by the Department do not provide sufficiently reliable performance indicators. These are the schools that were nominated for awards. They were:
- special schools and pupil referral units
- nursery schools
- primary schools with 10 or fewer pupils in the age group taking the relevant Key Stage tests in 2001 (Key Stage 1 for first and infant schools; Key Stage 2 for other primary schools).
To view the Scheme Nomination Leaflet, click here.
How many schools received an award?
In round three approximately 7,000 schools have won awards, equivalent to 30% of maintained schools in England (to find if your school has won an Award this year, click here). This brings the total number of awards to 20673, and the total of award winning schools to 13,797. The lists of award winning schools for rounds one and two can also be found on this site (please see the Archive).
How is the amount of the award calculated?
The distribution of awards has been worked out by allocating the total scheme budget to the total number of award winning schools based on full time equivalent (FTE) staff numbers, using January 2002 school census data.
What do I do if I think my school should have received an award, but did not?
There is no appeal process. However, if you feel a mistake has been made in applying the scheme criteria please contact the School Achievement Awards Scheme helpline on 020 7925 7425 to explain why you think this is so.
For frequently asked questions about the distribution of awards click here.
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