Education Bradford
Briefing note for school Senior Staff:
Bradford Schools Online, data and the White Folder
Purpose
This briefing note is to alert all school senior staff to improvements that have been,
and are being made, to the data available on Bradford Schools Online. This
includes plans to provide all future data on line.
In this document you will find (if reading on line click on the blue hyperlinks)
 Background
 The reasons for change
 Reviewing our existing reports
 Key Data
 Deeper Data and how to use Deeper Data
How to find these tools
 Standard Reports from Deeper Data
 The Dashboard
 Target setting autumn 2010
 Still to come
 Training
Background
Traditionally Education Bradford has provided a printed ‘White Folder’ to all schools
each Autumn. Since Summer 2009 increasing amounts of data, including the White
Folder itself, have been accessible via the secure area on Bradford Schools Online
(BSO). Over the past year, data accessible at Area and Locality level, target setting
and National & Bradford data have all been made available on line. Work on further
developments is underway and whilst it will take some months to complete, the first
changes are already available.
The reasons for change
To aid school improvement we want to improve the data analysis you receive from
Education Bradford by addressing some of the short-comings of our current
provision, including the White Folder, by:

Regularly updating the data: this year the White folder was provided via
BSO as a series of PDF files. The White Folder is based on the very first data
set we receive, and consequently it quickly becomes out of date. Whilst we
have been able to provide a small number of updates this year as new
releases have become available, we want to make faster and more regular
updates for schools, the only feasible way of doing this is by working on line.

Making it possible to monitor vulnerable groups: the vulnerable groups in
one school are not necessarily the same as the vulnerable groups in another.
To provide all the possible permutations for every school (2500 and growing!)
would create an extremely large document. Yet we want to provide you with a
simple means for you to monitor groups which are significant in your school.
To do this we have developed a new tool called Deeper Data. This tool is
already attracting the attention of other Local Authorities.
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
Providing comparisons: “how well am I doing?” and “what can I do about
it?” are key questions. We can offer some answers to both by providing
comparative data. However, in its current structure, such comparative data
would radically increase the size of the White Folder to a point where it is not
a practical solution. Deeper Data provides details of your own school’s data
and then, through a separate comparative report, allows you to compare your
data against other Bradford schools.

Giving access to governors and staff: to work together everyone needs
access to the same data. Moving to on line tools provides the opportunity to
make up to date data available to all staff and governors

Linking to existing data: we are all becoming increasingly familiar with the
concept of ‘Drill Down’ – start with high level data and by clicking through you
can get into more and more detail to help understand the issues. To make
this a practical solution all of our data systems need to be joined together. By
its nature, this is not something that can ever be delivered on paper. We are
already developing drill down between your Key Data through to Deeper
Data.

Providing a framework for development: just as we have discovered in
Bradford, other Local Authorities have recognised that a paper based system
for providing the range of data schools now needed is no longer the answer.
Instead we need to provide a flexible framework so that users of data can
explore data to the level they need. The framework must also be one that can
be developed over time to meet changing needs. The Deeper Data
framework has already stimulated some LAPs to use it to compare inter-Key
Stage data within the LAP.
In the past there have been some understandable concerns about moving from
printed documentation to an online system. However the response from schools who
have been using the electronic data already available on BSO, and from those
schools that we have asked to trial Deeper Data have found the range of data and
the opportunities to explore data from different angles to be invaluable. There has
been clear recognition that moving to online data is a very positive step forward.
Reviewing our existing reports
We have taken the opportunity to review existing reports (as viewable via Bradford
Schools Online – secure area) to improve their format and usefulness. For example;
the Early Years report which primary schools receive is currently 36 pages long and
almost all of the pages are just numbers. The 2010 version is about 1/3rd shorter with
a helpful mix of graphs and tables.
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Key Data
The headline data for your school is held in Key Data. Key Data is organised under
the following headings:
Heading
Detail
Contact Details
Address, phone, e-mail etc
School Contacts
Key people working with the school
Contextual data
Roll, mobility, SEN. Ethnicity & deprivation
Attendance & Exclusions
Annual attendance & exclusion figures
Management information
Grades from Ofsted inspections, Financial classification
and headline finance figures
Attainment
End of Key Stage headline figures over the last 5 years
Achievement
CVA measures
Ofsted report
Access to the most recent Ofsted report
School opening details
The days the school is opened and closed
Visits to the school
Details of visits by EB staff over the last 12 months
Key Data provides an important starting point when looking at your data as it
includes, where available, Bradford and National averages for comparative purposes.
To assist with comparison, relevant data is colour coded. We are currently
developing the capacity to drill down from Key Data into Deeper Data.
Deeper Data (available now in test mode – live from 1 July 2010)
Deeper Data is a tool to allow you to analyse end of Key Stage data to explore and
compare outcomes for the whole school or vulnerable groups.
How to use Deeper Data
There are three steps to using Deeper Data.
 In Step 1 you identify which pupils you want to include in your group. You
can set as many filters as you require. Selecting no filters will provide whole
school details.
 In Step 2 you select the Key Stage and subject area you want to focus on.
You must select one. This section includes the option to view Transition
Matrices for your selected group.
 In Step 3 you select the year you require, if you require your data split by
gender and which Localities and Areas you wish to compare against. To
keep the reports manageable primary school reports default to comparisons
in their own Locality only. However this can be changed by selecting
additional Localities and Areas.
Once you have set the filters you require click the Generate Report button.
NB if you have chosen a Transition Matrix the button automatically changes
to ‘Transition Matrix’. You may also save your search criteria for future
reference by you and others in your school.
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The Reports
Deeper Data generates two reports (a separate, single report is generated for
Transition Matrices):
The Yearly Trend Report is similar to that previously available in the White
Folder. It is in 4 sections.
 The first section reminds you of the filters you have selected. This is
particularly helpful if you choose to print the report.
 The second section shows you the outcome for the whole school over the
most recent 5 years i.e. it does not use the pupil filters that you set, these
come later.
Warning: Care needs to be taken when reading these figures as some
are pupil number counts and some are percentages. Those that are
percentages are clearly labelled. Through this report you can see
 the size of the cohort
 the percentage points each pupil contributes to the schools result
(EPC)
 Average Points Score
 the Bradford average
 additional data where relevant e.g. L5+ at KS2
 The third section repeats the same figures as in the second section but
this time for the pupils you selected in your filter.
 The fourth section again repeats the same figures as in the second
section but this time for the pupils not in your filter (the inverse selection).
Closing the Gap: The year on year figures allow you to see if the gap is
closing between your selected group, the whole school and the pupils not in
the selected group. The gap is closed when all the corresponding percentage
figures are the same in sections 2 to 4.
The Comparative Report provides a comparison for your filtered results
against those of the schools in the Localities you selected. The report is in 3
sections:
 The first section reminds you of the filters you have selected. This is
particularly helpful if you choose to print the report.
 The second section (the data rows are shaded grey) shows you in
separate rows the outcome:
o for the year you selected for the whole school
o for the group you selected
o for the pupils not in the group you selected
At the end of each row is a graph of the same data (excluding cohort
sizes).
 The third section provides the same data as in the second section but for
all of the schools in the Localities you have selected. These can be
scrolled on their own vertical scroll bar to aid comparison with your own
school. Alternating shading has been provided to group together the data
for each school.
The purpose of this report is to help schools work together by exploring
strengths and weaknesses.
Use the ‘Return to search criteria’ button and ‘Reset’ button to either adjust the filters
you have set or to start again. You can save report settings so they can be found
quickly and shared with colleagues.
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Standard Reports (available now in test mode – live from 1 July
2010)
Most schools will want to see similar reports for their school. We have created a page
where you can generate these reports, or a group of them, through one button. The
page looks like this (the first section is Standard Reports generated by the school):
Deeper Data Custom Reports
The reports below have been created using Deeper Data:
Report Title
Focus of report
Created by
Delete
Deprivation at 20%
Transition matrix Report
F Flintstone
Delete
English, EAL, girls only
Comparative Report
W Flintstone
Delete
KS1 LAC, boys
Yearly Trend Report
Clicking on the
(spreadsheet) or
report or group of reports. Clicking
browser.
Comparative Report
B Rubble
(PDF) symbol will provide the described
will allow you to view the report in the
You can create your own Standard Reports for use in school. This is especially
useful when sharing data analyses on vulnerable groups:
To add your own reports
When you have set the filters to produce a required report click on ‘Save
Report’. You will be asked to provide a descriptive name for the report and the
report focus. You will then see it listed in the Custom Reports section alongside
any other reports you have created.
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Accessing saved reports
All of the reports saved by users from your school are listed in the Custom
Reports section of the Standard Reports page. Saved reports are listed
alphabetically. Click on any report focus to open the report.
Managing your reports
As well as the title given to the report is the name of the person who created it.
This information is provided to help with the maintenance of the reports as only
the named person (or a person with a higher Access level) may delete the
report. The word ‘Delete’ appears against reports you can delete.
The Dashboard
We produce a range or reports and lists to help schools and officers. These have
been brought together through The Dashboard.
The Dashboard has two main sections: The first section gives access to the library
of end of Key Stage results analyses. These include:
 Headline data over recent years (a useful compendium when carrying out
self-assessments etc.)
 Results analyse at LA, school and Statistical Neighbour level.
 Where relevant, statutory targets
 Contextual Value Added (CVA) figures
 Closing the gap data
As reports become available they are added to the Dashboard. Please note that
earlier versions are deleted so only the most recent data is displayed.
The second section is a collection of helpful resource files and links that may help
when constructing your own analyses. These are linked to live data sources and
therefore change over time.
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Health Warning: Most reports will go through a series of iterations through the year
as more accurate data is released by the DfE and other bodies, it is therefore
important you ensure you are referring to the most recently published version of the
report. Previous versions are not retained.
Some reports (mainly those in a spreadsheet format) carry data for multiple years
and therefore the Dashboard will have several links to the same document. Please
check the tabbing at the bottom of the spreadsheet to ensure you have the correct
year.
How to find these tools
All of these tools are available within the secure section (Our School) of Bradford
Schools Online under Data Tools. You must ensure you are logged in.
Target Setting 2010
Target setting was undertaken electronically for the first time last Autumn. We are
extremely grateful for the work schools did to make this successful. The feedback we
received about this way of working was very positive.
We are making a number of changes to the software to reflect comments made by
schools. As a consequence we hope colleagues will recognise the improvement and
find the 2010 version easier to use. One of the comments made by schools last year
was the need to provide more training for those schools that required it. Details of
briefings which will take place in September and October will released to schools at
the start of the autumn term.
Still to come
We are now developing:
 Links between Key Data and Deeper Data to provide drill-down
 The option to provide between Key Stage assessments and, using the Deeper
Data model, compare and review progress. For further information please contact
Ryan Lewis 01274 385828 [email protected]
 Weekly comparative attendance monitoring for schools
Training
We hope that the new on-line developments described above will be self explanatory
and easy to use. However we are offering briefing sessions for senior staff on these
new developments in July and September. These will be published on Bradford
Schools Online via a News article.
Responsible Officer, Alan Smith, Head of the IMT, 01274 385820
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