Live National Benchmarks for DfE Statutory Assessments

The article explains the Live National Benchmarks feature for DfE statutory assessments, allowing schools to compare their assessment results in real-time against national averages and percentiles of other Arbor schools. It details the benchmarking availability for different educational stages, how benchmarks are calculated, and provides information on accessing and utilizing this feature within the school and MAT Management Information Systems (MIS).

With our Live National Benchmarks, you can see real-time year to date National Average and National Percentile data. The figures enable you to see how your school compares today with other Arbor schools across the country. 

• National Average - enables you to compare your school's assessment figures to the average for other Arbor schools.
• National Percentile - shows how your assessment results compare to other schools. For example, if your school is in the 90th percentile, your scores are higher than 90% of other Arbor schools.

If you have any feedback, please see how to submit it here: Our Product Roadmap and how to submit feedback

Using the benchmarking

On the school MIS

Benchmarking is available on the pages you would use to Analyse my DfE statutory assessments in Arbor. You can hover over to view more information.

For EYFS, benchmarking is available for:

• Achieving a good level of development
• Not achieving a good level of development

For Key Stage 1, benchmarking is available for:

• Phonics Screening Check: Meeting Expected Standard
• Phonics Screening Check: Not Meeting Expected Standard
• At least expected standard in Reading, Writing, Maths combined
• Above expected standard in Reading, Writing, Maths combined

Please note that as End of KS1 DfE Assessment is optional from Summer 2024, there may be a lower number of schools contributing to this dataset.

For Key Stage 2, benchmarking is available for:

• Achieving expected standard in Reading, Writing, Maths combined
• Multiplication Check - Mean Average Score (out of 25)
• Multiplication Check - % of students who scored 25

Click into your figures to drill down to see your data broken down by demographic or ethnicity, with a bar for your Live National Average.

On the MAT MIS

Benchmarking is available on the pages you would use to view your schools' DfE Standardised assessment results on the MAT MIS. 

Go to Analytics > Assessment > Attainment & Progress and select the Key Stage (EYFS, Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2). From the left-hand menu select MIS Data > DfE Assessment.

You'll see the same measures with National Average benchmarking as on the school MIS, and you can hover over to view more information.

Please note that:

• National Percentile figures are not available on the MAT MIS.
• As End of KS1 DfE Assessment is optional from Summer 2024, there may be a lower number of schools contributing to this dataset.

Click into your figures to drill down to see your data broken down by demographic or ethnicity, with a bar for your Live National Average.

How are the benchmarks calculated?

The benchmarking looks at all schools using Arbor who have at least 100 students marked for the assessment for the academic year selected.

At the start of the academic year, these figures will show as N/A until at least 100 schools have input their data. Then as more schools input their data, the figures become more accurate over time as more data can be compared against.

Other useful details:

• These figures don't include blank marks for students added to the assessment, but without a mark recorded for them yet.
• Figures are not scaled for school size, so averages are not weighted based on the number of students. If you have two schools, one with 50% and 2000 pupils and one with 80% and 100 pupils, the average would be 65%.
• Because these figures are calculated using Arbor schools, they will vary slightly from any DfE national statistics that consider all schools.

FAQ

Who can use this feature?

All users at all schools and MATs who can access the DfE Assessment Analysis pages can see how their school compares to our national figures.

Can we report on these figures in the Custom Report Writer?

It is not possible to report on National Average and National Percentile data in the Custom Report Writer.

Can we compare our current data to past data?

It is not possible to compare your current data to past data, such as for the previous academic year or term.

Can we switch off the benchmarking?

It is not possible to switch this feature off.