What do we mean by value added?
Some pupils will find it particularly difficult to reach the level expected for their age in assessment tests. It may be, for example, that they have significant special educational needs (SEN). But all pupils are capable of making progress and it is important that schools are given recognition for the work that they do with all their pupils.
We measure the progress that individual pupils have made between tests when they are in Year 2 (KS1), generally aged 7, and tests taken when they are in Year 6 (KS2) and generally aged 11. We call this the value added measure. Value added measures are intended to allow fairer comparisons between schools with different pupil intakes.
For example, school A might show higher percentages of pupils achieving Level 4 and above than school B. But school A's pupils may have higher KS1 test results than school B's. For the value added measure, each school's pupils are compared individually with other pupils with similar KS1 test results. If they do better than the median - or middle - performance of those other pupils in their KS2 tests, the value added will be positive; if less well than those other pupils, it will be negative. All the individual pupil scores, positive and negative, are added together to form the school's value added measure.
If school A's pupils generally made less progress than the average for pupils with similar KS1 results, and school B's pupils generally made more progress than the average for pupils with similar KS1 results, then school B will have higher value added than school A, even though its percentage achieving Level 4 and above at KS2 is lower.
The KS1 to KS2 value added measure
We base each pupil's value added score on a comparison between their KS2 performance and the median - or middle - performance of other pupils with the same or similar results at KS1. The individual pupil scores are averaged to produce the school level VA measure. This number is presented as a number based around 100. This indicates the value the school has added on average for their pupils.
The value added scores are shown as a measure based around 100. Measures above 100 represent schools where pupils on average made more progress than similar pupils nationally, while measures below 100 represent schools where pupils made less progress.
For KS1 to KS2 value added, a measure of 101 means that on average each of the school's pupils made one term's more progress between KS1 and KS2 than the median - or middle value - for pupils with similar KS1 attainment. A score of 99 means that the school's pupils made a term's less progress.
By looking at the table below, you can see how the VA measure for a school compares to other schools nationally.
| Profiles | Percentile |
| 101.8 and above | Top 5% of schools nationally |
| 100.6-101.7 | Next 20% of schools nationally |
| 100.1-100.5 | Next 15% of schools nationally |
| 99.6-100.0 | Middle 20% of schools nationally |
| 99.1-99.5 | Next 15% of schools nationally |
| 97.8-99.0 | Next 20% of schools nationally |
| 97.7 and below | Bottom 5% of schools nationally |
The Priors School VA Measure = 103.4
The data was taken from our voluntary SATs results for our 2007/2008 year 6 students, which tracks their progress from the age of 7 to 10 years.
This result puts our school in the top 5% of schools nationally. For example, in 2006 the top 5% of primary schools had a score of 101.8 and above - the highest being 105.4.