Latest school categorisation results published

31 Jan 2019 11:29 AM

This year’s categorisation information published today shows that there has been an improvement in school performance.

The National School Categorisation System, introduced in 2014, places schools into one of four colour-coded support categories to demonstrate the level of support they need - green, yellow, amber and red.

There are now more schools in the green and yellow categories when compared to last year. Green schools require just four days of support and yellow schools receive up to 10 days of support.

Last year a change was made to the factors that decide a school’s category. There is now a much broader assessment that considers a wider variety of information including wellbeing and the quality of teaching and learning, rather than just looking at areas such as performance, including GCSE results.

The purpose of including a broader and more sophisticated range of factors is to understand the kind of support needed by a school and to give parents a better picture of how a school is performing.

In summary:

• 88.4 per cent of primary schools and 69.4 per cent of secondary schools are now in the green and yellow categories. This increase from last year continues the upward trend since 2015.
• There has been a rise in the number of schools in the green category – those schools requiring least support - by 6.2 percentage points to 41.6 per cent.
• The proportion of red schools – those identified as needing most support – is around the same as last year (a small decrease on 0.1 per cent) in the primary sector. In the secondary sector, this has decreased by 1.8 percentage points.
• 52.5 per cent of special schools have been categorised as green, and needing less support, with no schools categorised as red and in need of most support.

Cabinet Secretary for Education Kirsty Williams said:

“I’m pleased to see that even more of our schools are now in the green and yellow categories, continuing on with the upward trend we have seen over the past few years.

“These schools have a key role to play in supporting other schools to improve by sharing their expertise, skills and good practice. 

“The system has become more sophisticated over time and now allows for a much broader range of factors about a school’s ability to improve to be taken into account – leading to a tailored programme of support and intervention which meets the needs of all pupils.”