On 25 August, hundreds of thousands of 16-year-olds across England will get their GCSE results. On the day itself, there’s not really anything that governors have to do. You may like to go into school to see the year 11s collect their hard-earned results and offer your congratulations (although do ask the headteacher beforehand) but your work really starts later.
So, to help you plan, here are four tips on getting started.
Get to grips with Progress 8
The governing body’s role is to hold the school to account for its performance, but this year it could be more difficult for governors to make sense of how their school is performing. GCSEs will still be graded A*-G (the 9-1 system doesn’t come in until 2017) but the accountability measures have changed.
At your first governing body meeting or relevant committee meeting of the autumn term, ask the headteacher for the results . Official performance data isn’t released until January 2017 but the provisional results should be available for you to analyse.
Look at whether your school has met the minimum standards (except in special schools, where these don’t apply). For 2016, a secondary school is below the floor standard if its progress 8 score is below -0.5 and the upper band of the 95% confidence interval is below zero.
If your school opted into progress 8 for 2014-15, this measure is the same as last year. A score of -0.5 means that, on average, students made half a grade less progress than their peers nationally with similar prior attainment. If your school has not met the floor standards, it is more likely to come under scrutiny through inspection so you will need to prepare for this.
Interrogate the data, questioning any wide gaps in achievement between groups of students or underperforming groups. These might be students eligible for the pupil premium, with special educational needs, or students who have English as an additional language, for example
Look at how your school’s results compare to the national average, as well as any context that may explain your results
Don’t compare with last year
Don’t worry too much about making close comparisons with previous years – you won’t really be able to do this unless your school opted into the progress 8 and attainment 8 measures in 2014-15.
If you do want to compare, you could look at the percentage of pupils achieving the threshold (a grade C) in English and maths in each year, and the percentage of pupils achieving the English baccalaureate. However, from 2017 these will become less meaningful as the reformed GCSEs will be graded 9-1 and there will be a different threshold.
If results are worse than expected, find out why
If your results are not good as predicted, find out why. At your next meeting, ask the headteacher why the school’s forecasts weren’t accurate. Once you’ve established the reasons, ask senior leaders to set out their actions to improve results next year. Consider, also, how you monitor achievement: does the governing body scrutinise data often enough?
Don’t forget to support the headteacher – staff morale may be low if results were not good. There could be fears that an inspection will come sooner than anticipated. Ask your headteacher if they would appreciate any additional support – for example, from a national leader of education – or whether staff would like any extra continuing professional development.
Don’t forget to celebrate success – no matter how small
It may sound obvious, but if the results are good, congratulate students and staff. Even if the overall results are not as good as hoped, make sure not to overlook any success, no matter how small. Did any groups of students do better than expected, for example?
School staff can sometimes be so focused on their relentless drive for improvement that they forget to reflect on what has actually gone well. Celebrating success can help boost staff (and governor) morale. Nevertheless, don’t become complacent and always be consider how you can improve further.
Moving forward
Remember that these results often dictate students’ futures. Find out where your students go after year 11. And take some time as a governing body to reflect on the year as a whole at your next meeting: what went well? What will you do differently for 2016-17?
Jessica Cope is a researcher specialising in school governance at The Key, provider of leadership and management support to schools.
