An MHK is pressing for parents to be given more information about how well their children’s schools are performing.

Daphne Caine (Garff) was speaking after the government published data on attainment by primary schools in response to her Tynwald question.

That question saw the release of information on a new measure of attainment, the GLP, or Good Level of Development for almost every primary school in the Isle of Man. Details are on page two.

However, in response to a question, Mrs Caine was told data for the past five years was not available because the retrieval system, known as Keypas, was abandoned in 2013.

Mrs Caine said: ’Trends can be seen through the data that should be openly released.

’Parents can see if there are schools that are doing less well and the department can look at putting any additional resources in place to help.

’The Key Stage 1 and 2 [aged five to 11] data would give a better picture for parents.’

But when she asked the question in Tynwald, Education Minister Graham Cregeen said: ’The department stopped using Keypas in 2013 because the assessment arrangements for schools in England were no longer comparable with those on the Isle of Man and it became increasingly difficult to extract the information needed.’

However, Mrs Caine said it could be interesting to compare data between schools and with that for schools in England.

’A spirit of openness would be welcome, particularly in a government that is aiming to be more accountable,’ she added.

It was ’disappointing’, she said, that attainment data for key stages one and two (infant and junior level) children was not being shared by the department, and only some of the information is available on individual schools’ websites.

’I have increasing numbers of parents and education professionals contacting me about this,’ she said.

Mrs Caine said she was pleased to see results for a new measure of attainment, the GLD, or Good Level of Development, had been publicised and showed a significant increase on last year’s figures.

The GLD measure was introduced for 2016/17 and assesses children at the end of their reception year on 17 ’early learning goals’, which cover personal, social and emotional development, physical development, communication, as well as specific areas of maths and literacy.

Mr Cregeen said the measure had seen a significant uplift on the previous year with the average percentage of reception pupils, aged four and five, who achieved what is classed as a good level of development in 2017/18 at 69% across the island.

Scores at different schools ranged from 43.8% to 100%, albeit the full marks figure related to a school with a low number of reception pupils in 2017/18.

Individual schools have published the percentages on their websites, with the exception of Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, the Manx language primary school, because pupils are not assessed in English until year three (ages seven-eight).

improvement

Mr Cregeen added: ’As predicted, this shows a marked - 22% - improvement in this measure compared to 2017, as a result of the significant priority placed on this by the Education Improvement Service, moderators and head teachers over the whole of the previous year and the increasing dedication and expertise of practitioners in undertaking ongoing observational assessments of pupils.’ The GLD measure was introduced for 2016/17. When the figures for that year were given in response to an earlier Tynwald question by Mrs Caine, they included the number of pupils in each school’s reception year, alongside the percentages of those attaining GLD.

That led to concerns that the figures in that format made it possible to identify individual children, particularly in schools with small class sizes.

On this occasion, the department has only released percentages for each school.

Last month, in an earlier Tynwald question, Mrs Caine asked for details of year six attainment levels, broken down on a school-by-school basis and was told that the schools would publish those figures, once verified, on their own websites.

Parent David Watts, of Castletown, has called for easier access to information on pupils’ performance, saying parents should be allowed to form their own opinion.

’Remember no such data was released by the department before the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act and, even since then, the department has resisted such publication,’ he said.

snapshot

Mr Watts produced what he called ’some comparative snapshot evidence of KS2 attainment, together with longer term trend data regarding attainment at National Curriculum Level 5+.’

In the commentary to his tables, he said: ’I hope what has been highlighted to date is of interest, at the very least, to some of the parents of the 851 children who completed KS2 in 2017 and to those who seek greater information regarding potential schools for their children.’