Our added value

What is Value-added?

The national value-added programme is led by a research team at the Centre of Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM). It accurately measures how much progress each student achieves, from the point they join St Mary's up until their GCSE or A Level results. Value-added scores are ranked against other schools across the UK.

Value-added at St Mary's

Our latest value-added results:

  • Value-added at GCSE level: 0.5

To explain what this means for our students, at GCSE, our score of 0.5 means that (on average) we added 0.5 of a grade to every girl's results, across all subjects. To put this in context, this could be the difference between 10 grade 8s and 10 grade 9s.

Why is this important?

Whilst we are a selective school, we welcome a broad ability range. Our value-add scores show that girls of all ability levels succeed in raising their attainment levels with our support and guidance.

CEM describes value-added as a measure, which offers:

  • a fairer indication of how far a student has come
  • a fairer measure of how well the school has brought that student on
  • a fairer way to make comparisons between different schools’ performances

Value-added highlights to role of quality of teaching, availability of resources and many other factors, that may have an effect on the progress of individual pupils. It is calculated by considering a fixed period of time, to measure the amount of improvement a school has added to the pupil.

All schools improve their pupils in this way. However, if one school is increasing the achievement level of its pupils more than other schools are, then its pupils gain an additional advantage. It is this relative advantage that CEM refer to as 'value-added'.

How is Value Added calculated for GCSE

In Year 10, students undertake a computer-based YELLIS assessment, provided by CEM. This provides us with a detailed picture of each student's academic profile and potential across different subjects.

Using this data, CEM predicts GCSE grades for each girl, by comparing them with past students of similar academic profiles. When students collect their GCSE results at the end of Year 11, we compare the actual results with the grades predicted by CEM. This allows us to evaluate how much 'added-value' our teaching and wider education have delivered over the two-year period.

The process is the same for A Level students, with a baseline CEM assessment taken at the start of Year 12.

A whole host of factors influence academic attainment. From changing grade boundaries to students' effort levels, personal health, home lives and availability of support. CEM takes these wider factors into account and in 2016, CEM indicated that a value-added score of more than 0.2 could be attributed directly to a schools' teaching and resources.

 

CEM

Value-added at the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring

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Our results

Our latest GCSE and A Level results

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Our view ...

"We take enormous pride in offering places to students of a wider ability range than other local independent schools. We have the freedom and resources to invest in each and every student - including a rigorous academic environment, tailored support and our in-depth pastoral care programme. This approach adds value, making a positive difference to our students' academic accomplishments"
Hannah Helliar, Head