Fischer Family Trust (FFT) Estimate Analyses
Last updated: 31/05/2013
Add to My Bookmarks
Subscribe
Fischer Family Trust (FFT) Live
FFT Frequently Asked
Questions are updated following feedback from schools.
Fischer Family Trust - Background and
Guidance
The Fischer Family Trust, a non-profit making organisation,
carries out school and pupil estimate analyses on behalf of the
DfE, LAs and schools using national School Census data and results
datasets. It is hoped that these analyses will assist with the
setting of targets, complimenting analyses provided by the LA
Statistics Team and providing a range of estimates for schools to
consider. The FFT analyses are outlined in the factsheets
(Primary FFT
Factsheet and Secondary FFT
Factsheet) or for more information please visit the FFT website.
The new FFT Governor Dashboard presents
an accessible 4 page summary of school performance at
Key Stage
2 and Key Stage
4. The data is consistent with that in RAISEonline, FFTLive and
Ofsted’s Data Dashboard. It also provides some new additional
information for governors including pupil progress for all GCSE
subjects and attendance by year group.
Recent changes to legislation have removed the requirement for
schools to provide targets to the DfE for attainment, progress and
absence (via the Local Authority), however target setting is still
important for schools. In a recent briefing (Primary,
Secondary)
FFT discuss the merits of continuing to use the estimates they
provide alongside other information and knowledge in the school to
enable realistic and challenging targets to be set for individuals
or cohorts.
“…target setting itself is still at the heart of good planning
to support continuous school improvement and is intended to
challenge expectations for both pupils and schools”
The school and pupil level estimates developed by FFT are run by
the LA Stats Team and are for the main summary measures in each Key
Stage. You will note that the analyses provides 4 types of
estimates by gender for a particular year using marks as well as
levels for increased accuracy and based on progress made by:
- A - all pupils nationally based on prior attainment (including
marks where available, subject differences, and TA), gender and
month of birth.
- B - pupils in similar schools (as with Type A, but adjusted for
the school’s context including FSM and geodemographic data).
- D - pupils in the 25th percentile schools for value added (as
with Type B, but adjusted for the progress made by pupils in 25th
percentile schools for value-added).
- Boxed Estimate: as with Type A, but adjusted for the
value-added made by similar pupils in your school over the last
three years.
The FFT estimates should be treated with some caution, here is a
useful document to aid the process of Making Best
Use of FFT Estimates. This Accuracy of
Estimates document from FFT answers questions such as, 'how
accurate are KS4 subject estimates?' and 'how many students get the
same grade as their estimated grade?'.
Following requests from schools, CAPITA have worked in
collaboration with the Fischer Family Trust to produce a series of
grade sets, aspects and templates, to allow FFT data to be
transferred into the SIMS database via Assessment Manager, please
see the Capita website
for details.
Ben
Crowe
Directorate Support Team (Data and Statistics)