As an ‘outstanding’ academy, Featherstone High School sets its sights firmly on very high standards of achievement year after year.
With students coming from backgrounds with a fair degree of deprivation, and above the national average levels of SEN and free school meals, the challenge is to ensure that achievement of students is raised far beyond their expectations.
SIMS has become integral to the school ensuring that every child achieves all they are capable of. In particular, using SIMS Discover to help leaders and teachers easily interpret pupil data, then using SIMS Learning Gateway to communicate this information with parents.
Through using SIMS to help improve the targeting and support of students, progress results have now placed the school in the top 10% for Contextual Value Added (CVA) for 6 consecutive years and in the top 2% twice. The school has also seen attendance increase from 94% to an outstanding 96.9%.
This is particularly inspiring in an urban school serving a highly disadvantaged community.