This NFER research compares how representative different groups of schools are compared to their catchment area in terms of the socio-economic background of their pupils.
Education in England has seen several significant changes in the last few years. Since 2017 more schools which were formally under local authority control have become academies and joined a school trust. In 2022/23, 80 per cent of England’s secondary school pupils were educated in an academy compared to 66 per cent in 2015/16. The number and size of school trusts has also grown considerably since 2016 with the government setting out an ambition for all schools to be part of a strong school trust in future.
Secondly, Progress 8 is now established as the main accountability measure for secondary schools. This value-added attainment measure was introduced for all schools in 2016, alongside Attainment 8. Progress 8 takes into account pupils’ starting point when they enter secondary school and uses their Attainment 8 score at Key Stage 4 to give a measure of progress made. Attainment 8 is an average measure of a pupil’s performance across their eight best performing subjects taken at GCSE level (and can include other qualifications such as BTECs). A school’s scores are calculated as the average Progress 8 and Attainment 8 scores, respectively, achieved by its pupils.
Furthermore, between January 2020 and January 2021, there was an increase of almost 120,000 FSM eligible pupils in the secondary sector, taking the FSM rate from 15.9 per cent to 18.9 per cent. These rates have been increasing ever since, rising to 20.9 per cent in 2021/22 and 22.7 per cent in 2022/23.
The report defines the ‘top’ comprehensives by considering those schools ranking in the top 500 in terms of academic attainment at the end of Key Stage 4. Where there are differences between a school’s intake and its catchment area, these may be due to a range of different factors which may be related to actions by the school, by parents/families, etc.