ABOUT THESE TABLES

General

These Tables give information about the National Curriculum Key Stage 3 (KS3) test results for maintained schools in England. For each local authority (LA), schools are listed alphabetically. Special and middle schools, if any, are shown separately at the end.

A middle school will only appear on the list if they have pupils that have taken ALL of their Key Stage 3 tests early in May 2005.

If your child attends a school listed in the Tables, you may be interested to see how its results compare with other schools in the area, and with the LA and national averages. You can also see, at a glance, how each school's results have changed over the past four years.

You may wish to discuss the results with teachers at your child's school - how do they feel the school is performing, and what plans do they have to improve levels of achievement? How can you support the work of the school? What more can you do to help your own child do better?

Choosing a school

If you are considering local secondary schools for your child, you will find helpful information in the Tables about the performance of schools in your area. But the Tables provide only part of the picture of each school's overall achievements.

You can find more information in school prospectuses, by checking for reports of recent Ofsted inspections and, of course, by visiting schools and talking to teachers.

How to read the Tables

The Secondary School (Key Stage 3) Achievement and Attainment Tables give more than one measure of a school's performance. These measures can be considered alongside each other when evaluating the performance of a school. The Tables show:

• background information for each school, including numbers and percentages of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) both with and without statements;
• a value added (VA) measure and coverage percentage;
• the number of pupils eligible for KS3 assessment (including the number and percentage of pupils with SEN both with and without statements);
• the percentage of pupils achieving Level 5 or above at KS3 and the percentage of pupils absent from the tests or unable to access them;
• the average point score for the school; and
• a bar chart showing results for the past four years.

The following sections describe and explain:

• the Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3 value added measure;
• Key Stage 3 results including the average point score ; and
• year on year comparisons.

The 'National Curriculum' section gives more information about the key stages, the levels of achievement expected of pupils at various ages and stages, and teacher assessments and tests.

Other sections explain the terms and abbreviations, where the information comes from, and how to get further information.