Utilising Deesha’s Learning Module For Census Attainment Data
When parents are getting ready to send their kids to school, they're naturally looking at all sorts of things to find the right fit. It's a big decision! They might think about how close the school is to home – could they walk the kids, or how far are they willing to travel each day? Is there decent public transport? What about the other kids in the neighbourhood – where do they go? And of course, if their child is keen on certain after-school clubs or activities, they'll want to know if the school offers them. For working parents, after-school care is a major factor too – what's available, and what kind of care is provided? However, in secondary education, school performance statistics released by the Department for Education (DfE) is an important aspect.
This article focuses on understanding these DfE secondary school performance measures (specifically Key Stage 4 or KS4), explaining what they mean, why schools must submit this data, and, most importantly, how Deesha's Learning Module significantly reduces the administrative burden associated with DfE reporting. (We won't delve into the DfE's complex calculation methods today – that's a topic for another time, and perhaps another way Deesha can help streamline processes!).
What are Secondary School Performance Measures (KS4)?
These measures report on student achievement at the end of secondary education (Year 11). Two key terms are essential for understanding them:
Attainment: This refers to student achievement at a specific point in time, such as GCSE results or end-of-key-stage results. Attainment is typically recorded in grades, scores, or levels. Think of it as a snapshot of where students are now.
Progress: This measures student achievement over time, for example, from Key Stage 2 (end of primary school) to Key Stage 4. Progress shows the difference between a student's previous and current attainment, taking their starting point into account. It shows how much students have improved.
Understanding KS4 Performance Measures (and how Deesha supports schools)
The KS4 headline metrics, as provided in DfE performance statistics, are critical to understanding school success. Deesha assists schools in managing and analysing this data effectively. Here's the breakdown:
Progress 8: This metric aims to capture the progress students make from the end of Key Stage 2 (primary school) to the end of Key Stage 4 (secondary school). Every grade improvement a student achieves in their Attainment 8 subjects contributes to the school's Progress 8 score. This is a "value-added" measure, comparing a student's results to other students nationally with similar prior attainment (KS2 results). Higher Progress 8 scores indicate greater progress compared to the national average for students with similar starting points. Deesha helps schools track and analyse Progress 8 data to identify areas for improvement.
English Baccalaureate (EBacc) Entry: This measures the percentage of students entering the English Baccalaureate. To be counted in the EBacc, students must take GCSEs in five subject "pillars": English (Language and Literature), Maths, Sciences, Humanities (History or Geography), and a Language. Deesha can help schools monitor EBacc entry rates and identify trends.
EBacc Average Point Score (APS): This measures students' average point scores across the five EBacc pillars. For English results to be included in the EBacc APS calculation, students must take both English Language and English Literature GCSEs. This approach ensures that students of all abilities are considered, not just those within specific grade boundaries, encouraging schools to provide EBacc opportunities to a wider range of students. Deesha supports analysis of EBacc APS to understand student performance across these key subjects.
Pupil Destinations: This measure shows the percentage of students who continue into sustained education, employment, or training in the year after completing KS4 (Year 11). This metric may also report further details about student destinations, such as apprenticeships. Deesha can help schools track and manage student destination data for reporting and analysis.
Attainment in English and Maths: This measures the percentage of students achieving a grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSEs, as well as the percentage achieving a grade 4 or above. These are key indicators of student achievement in core subjects. Deesha provides tools to analyse attainment in English and Maths, helping schools identify areas for targeted intervention.
Attainment 8: This measures a student's score across eight qualifications:
Maths and English (double-weighted).
Three qualifications that count towards the EBacc.
Three further qualifications, which can be GCSEs (including EBacc subjects) or technical awards from the DfE approved list. Deesha simplifies the management and analysis of Attainment 8 data, providing valuable insights for school improvement.
From Progress 8 analysis to student destination tracking, Deesha simplifies KS4 data management and provides actionable insights for school improvement. Book a demo to see how Deesha can help your school thrive.
School data submission responsabilities
The DfE publishes KS4 performance tables based on pupil information collected through the Spring Census. The School Census is the primary tool the DfE uses to monitor the school system. It gathers data on pupil numbers, backgrounds, needs, and more.
The School Census collects information three times a year from various educational settings, including primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, maintained nurseries, academies, and pupil referral units. Private schools are excluded from this data collection.
The census gathers information on pupil background details, educational needs, attainment, and much more. Schools must report 134 data points each term for census submissions. These submissions form a permanent record for the DfE, enabling the calculation of KS4 performance measures.
Attainment related data points in the census are as follows:
Maths GCSE highest prior attainment
Maths GCSE prior attainment year 11
English GCSE highest prior attainment
English GCSE prior attainment year 11
Maths GCSE funding exemption
English GCSE funding exemption
Maths GCSE highest prior attainment previous year
English GCSE highest prior attainment previous year
Schools are also required to submit attainment information for the five EBacc subject pillars. This data is essential for calculating Attainment 8 and Progress 8 measures.
How long does it take to prepare data for the census report? Imagine having a system that automatically generates this data directly from your operational systems, allowing you to focus solely on verifying its accuracy. This is where Deesha’s Learning Module can help. First, let us explain what Deesha is.
What is Deesha?
The word ‘Deesha’ (D- IY-SHA) means an insightful vision. Deesha’s journey began with a crucial insight: educational institutions possess a vast reservoir of data, yet struggle to swiftly harness it for informed, strategic decisions that inspire growth. Deesha was created to streamline manual data collection and analysis, empowering educational leaders to focus squarely on their core mission – the pupils and their education.
Deesha has nine modules that span the entire end to end spectrum of educational data and analytics. Deesha’s modules are:
Student Information
Admissions
Marketing
Learning
Survey
HR
Functional Evaluation
Health and Safety
Finance
Schools can start with a single module and expand their Deesha implementation as needed, choosing the modules that address their most pressing and time-consuming administrative challenges.
Ready to see how Deesha can streamline your school's operations? Request a demo today to discover the modules that best fit your organisation's needs.
Deesha’s Learning Module: Data-Driven Insights for Academic Success
Like all of Deesha’s modules, the Learning Module doesn't require schools to change their existing teaching methods or pedagogical approaches. There are numerous studies on effective learning and best practices, and this article, along with Deesha’s Learning Module, doesn't interfere with your chosen operational course. Instead, Deesha's learning analytics, through its various subcategories and metrics, helps schools gain valuable insights into the learning process and identify opportunities for improvement. Deesha integrates with schools' existing LMS (Learning Management Systems) and a broad range of other data sources, including behavioural data from online systems or discussion forums. This integration provides educators with both qualitative and quantitative intelligence to make data-driven, informed decisions about student learning.
Deesha currently offers three subcategories within the Learning Module: Academic Achievement, Homework, and Multilingualism. This article will focus on the Academic Achievement subcategory, which incorporates the data points eventually used for KS4 performance measures reporting.
As the name suggests, the Academic Achievement subcategory of Deesha’s Learning Module focuses on tracking and monitoring a pupil’s academic achievement from the time they join the school until the end of their time there. This includes tracking pupil grade trends over the years in different subject areas, pupil end-of-year results, attainment information from external exams, as well as pupil APS per subject, and the impact of pupil behaviour, engagement, or attendance on their achievement. Deesha helps schools focus on what is most important to track, as the potential insights can be extensive. This is where a school’s strategic mission and priorities become crucial.
Deesha’s bespoke nature means that if a school is tracking a different metric than the pre-built ones, Deesha can custom-build that metric for them. Our data intelligence platform, which powers the data visualisation, enables schools to customise the measures they want to see.
If you are spending considerable time collating information for census submission relating to learning, Deesha’s learning module is the right one to use. The data points needed for census submission could be put as an add-on into the regular view that you get to track your pupil academic achievement and progress.
At the school group level, Deesha provides an aggregated view of pass rates across all your schools, highlighting top-performing schools in specific subjects and analysing curriculum effectiveness, along with the key factors influencing these results. Deesha's Academic Achievement subcategory includes comprehensive subject and curriculum analysis dashboards.
Extend Deesha’s Academic Achievement to build your census data point
According to the latest census data requirement for 2024 and 2025 the following fourteen data points are needed to be submitted at the pupil level.
Planned learning hours
Planned learning hours previous year
T Level planned learning hours
Maths GCSE highest prior attainment
Maths GCSE prior attainment year 11
English GCSE highest prior attainment
English GCSE prior attainment year 11
Maths GCSE highest prior attainment previous year
English GCSE highest prior attainment previous year
Learning aim start date
Learning aim planned end date
Learning aim actual end date
Learning aim status
Learning aim withdrawal reason
The data collection for the learning module of Deesha is done by integrating with the school's LMS. If you wanted to extend the learning module capability Deesha could build your census data as an additional add on to the current learning module, which will help to reduce your time, burden, and effort to produce these numbers during your statutory submission.
Conclusion
Deesha's core purpose is to free educational leaders from administrative burdens by automating data collection and transformation. This empowers schools to proactively analyse data, identify gaps early, and implement timely interventions to improve student outcomes.
With statutory requirements for census data submission, which the DfE uses for KS4 performance measures, Deesha's Learning Module automates the process, significantly reducing compliance burdens. Deesha's standard package prepares all your census data automatically, requiring only validation.
Ready to see how Deesha can streamline your data management and improve student outcomes? Book a demo today!