INTRODUCTION

In the White Paper Achieving Success, the then Secretary of State announced her intention to enhance the data published in performance tables from 2002 through the inclusion of measures of value added for schools, based on the progress made by individual pupils from one stage of their education to another. This publication contains the results of 495 schools who took part in a pilot study designed to look at how value added might be measured from Key Stage 1 (KS1) to Key Stage 2 (KS2). We are indebted to those schools who volunteered to participate in the pilot and willingly checked additional data so that these results could be presented alongside the information already available in the performance tables.

This pilot study examines the practicalities of collecting data and presenting the results of a value added measure from KS1 to KS2. The following paragraphs describe the background of the pilot study. This is followed by the pilot results. The technical annex explains the value added calculation in more detail.

Some reviews requested of awarding bodies by schools of KS2 results awarded to pupils were not completed in time to affect the information included in these tables. It is, therefore possible that, for some schools, the published information would have been different had the results of the reviews been available earlier. If you have an interest in a particular school's result, you should check with the school.

The lessons learned from this pilot will inform our proposals for publication at national level next year. Your views on all aspects of the exercise are important to us. Please complete the questionnaire for the Value Added pilot on our website which can be accessed at the evaluation questionnaire. A hard copy can be obtained from Malcolm Harris on 020 7925 5271. All comments are welcome, but to ensure they inform our proposals for next year they should be submitted no later than Monday 30 December 2002.