Mary Elton Primary School

Mary Elton Primary School

SWGfL Report Harmful Content

The importance of School Data

One of the main roles of the Governors is to use the data that we collect to help the School’s leadership team to do the best for the children.

 Parents and Carers will be aware that the teachers monitor the progress of the pupils periodically during the year. Over the last few years we have built up a library of data that allows us to follow the education of the children through the school and to measure progress. By collecting data regularly and monitoring trends we can see what works best and improve what we do. The School then use this information to agree the teacher’s focus for the coming terms, to ensure that every child gets the best possible education over the year and through their entire time at the School.

 Not only can we monitor how the school is doing and take action to improve standards generally but the teachers can also monitor the progress of individual pupils, set targets that are appropriate for each pupil and ensure that we support them to be the best that they can be. It is not appropriate for Governors to have information about individual pupils nor would we look to interfere with the relationship between the individual pupils and the teachers. It is our role to focus on the bigger picture. However, we do work with the School’s leadership team to understand how the teachers balance the need to improve standards generally with the needs of individual children which will always vary from pupil to pupil.

Whilst the data is critical in helping our understanding, we always remember that behind the numbers are the children and every one of them is important. Understanding the data helps us have better discussions about the education of the children. However, the most important thing is that they achieve the best that they can while they are with us and that we support them to do that.

John Reeve