The latest government floor standards have a huge flaw. A school would be seen as “underperforming” if its key stage 2 results are below the average percentage of pupils at the end of KS2 making expected progress in English or maths. This is calculated by the median, but the median is the value separating the higher half of the population from the lower half.
In this case, every year 50 per cent of schools will be “underperforming”. If every school got above 90 per cent, still 50 per cent would be below the median, and thus failing.
If you want to force all schools to be academies, why not call half the schools “underperforming” and they’ll be in the hands of private companies in no time.
Gareth Medd, Deputy headteacher.