The following figures and commentary are as of January 2006.
Some of the trends can be gleaned from the provision information. The Church of England works very closely with the DfES and OfSTED to co-operate across a range of research. The most significant recent pieces of work have been undertaken for us by Prof David Jesson (secondary schools, using the methodology he developed for the Specialist Schools Trust) and by The University of Christ Church Canterbury (all Church of England schools compared in various ways with all schools and with other voluntary providers – principally our Roman catholic colleagues).
It is commonly agreed that Church of England schools (and Roman Catholic schools) outperform community schools. It is however, often argued that this is because their intake is skewed sociologically and in terms of ability.
Prof Jesson has undertaken research for us on this issue, with the following results:
- by the free school meals measure the average for church secondary schools is 13.2 per cent of pupils compared with 15.8 per cent for all other schools. So there is a small “advantage” here. However, it is important to note that the percentage for severe disadvantage is almost identical and that the range of disadvantage from one school to another is large. Church schools and community schools both have about a sixth of their schools in the severely disadvantaged category.
- Prof Jesson has also established that Church of England secondary schools have more feeder schools than average with relatively high prior attainments. This presumably reflects in the main the high quality of Church primary schools. However, this makes it essential to judge the real added value of the secondary schools.
- If the added value is low, then the charge that our schools are better mainly because of the skewed intake will have been demonstrated. However, in fact, the extra added value of Church of England secondary schools is quite marked
- Using Key Stage 2 school points scores as the comparator pupils in Church of England schools substantially outperformed their peers in other schools. This picture is borne out also when we use the total GCSE points score or the capped GCSE points score as the comparators. It is also replicated in key subjects.
The Christ Church Canterbury research looked at both the primary and secondary sectors with the following results:
- At Key Stage 4, when the figures are adjusted to allow for individual pupils, Local Authority and school characteristics the extra value for Church of England schools is equivalent to one pupil in four achieving one extra grade in one GCSE subject. The unadjusted difference is one pupil in two.
- While Church schools have a slightly smaller percentage of pupils with free schools meals, these pupils attain better scores in Church schools. For high IDCA pupils (ie the most deprived) the difference is very marked – one pupil in two achieving an extra grade in one GSCE subject.
The figures above may all seem quite small, but they are actually statistically very significant. The combination, for example, of the Key Stage 4 extra value with the emphasis on extra added value for the average pupils could bring a significant number of pupils up into the five A*-C category.