This guest blog is an update from our partners Arbor Education, which is supported by our accredited MIS team. We are hosting a joint webinar on 8th July – free to attend!
Announcing Arbor’s new Understanding Your MAT Report – out now!
Often serving a broad range of pupils from different backgrounds, and sometimes varying geographical areas, a big priority for Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) is ensuring their spread of provision gives every pupil an equal chance of success.
There are lots of factors that play a part in how pupils perform, such as where they live, whether they’re eligible for free school meals (FSM), or have special educational needs (SEN). As a DfE official warns that the attainment gap for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds could widen by 75% as a result of Covid-19, it’s more important than ever for trusts to look at their school performance in context. The problem is, it’s not always easy to gather all this data in one place without trawling online data tables or waiting on spreadsheets.
To help with this, our partner Arbor Education has launched a brand new free report for MAT leaders – the “Understanding Your MAT Report”. Created for every MAT in the country, the report helps MATs understand their unique make-up in a national context, so they can shape smart strategy going forwards.
Designed in partnership with the Centre for Education and Youth, the Understanding Your MAT Report brings together key school performance measures, alongside the MAT’s size and local demographics, to help leaders understand their unique set of strengths and challenges. What’s more, the report shows each MAT how they compare to other trusts nationally for the first time.
You can download your copy of the Understanding Your MAT Report now from Arbor’s free Group Insight portal!
What can you do with the new Understanding Your MAT Report?
1.Get a clear picture of student performance across your trust, how you compare in a national context
2.Compare your size, growth, pupil characteristics and socio-economic factors with other trusts
3.Shape smart strategy by looking at the relationship between deprivation and attainment across your trust
Here’s the detail:
1. Get a clear picture of student performance across your trust, how you compare in a national context
Arbor uses your schools’ latest validated 2019 Analyse School Performance (ASP) data to show you your spread of performance in key measures at KS4, 2 and 1, such as Progress 8, Achieving Expected Standard: Reading, Writing and Maths, and Working at the Expected Standard: Year 1 Phonics.
Then they compare your results against three key benchmarks: Trust average (the weighted average of all your schools’ results), National average (weighted average of all state schools in England) and National MAT average (weighted average of all academies in England) to help you see what makes your MAT distinctive.
Plus, you can use your report as a companion to your free Arbor Group Insight portal, where you can dig further into any data set to see pupil level figures.
Image 1 – KS4 Progress 8 score, Understanding Your MAT Report 2020
2. Compare your size, growth, pupil characteristics and socio-economic factors with other trusts
You might be wondering “Is my MAT growing at the same pace as other trusts?” Or “Is our proportion of students eligible for Free School Meals higher or lower than other trusts?” The Understanding Your MAT Report will help you answer all these questions and more, showing you how your unique make-up compares to other trusts in the country.
You’ll get an overview of your MAT’s size, growth, blend of phases, pupil characteristics (% of FSM, SEN and EAL pupils), as well as the “Area Type” your schools are in, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) area classifications. The report also shows you the demographic factors associated with the areas your schools are in (such as the level of education and the unemployment rate) which helps you understand your pupils’ socio-economic background.
Image 2 – Area Type Blend, Understanding Your MAT Report 2020
3. Shape smart strategy by looking at the relationship between deprivation and attainment across your trust
By bringing together your demographics, pupil context and school attainment, your Understanding Your MAT Report will help you understand all the factors impacting achievement at your MAT. As you’ll see from the report’s leading article “Breaking the link: Attainment, poverty and rural schools” (preview here), the relationship between disadvantage and attainment varies considerably between different parts of England, so it’s important for trusts to understand how this plays out across their mix of schools.
Use this analysis to drive decision making at your next strategy meeting, and find new ways to improve results for staff and pupils.
Accessing your report
Your Understanding Your MAT Report is live now for you to download from your Arbor Group Insight portal – Arbor has also sent the link to you by email. If you’re not registered, don’t worry, you can sign up for free here.
Contacting us and further SBS support
If you have any questions about your report, or if you’d like one of our team to show you around Group Insight, please get in touch with the SBS MIS Service Desk at misservicedesk@schoolbusinessservices.co.uk or call 0345 222 1551 – Option 3
Please note that we’re currently offering a 10% discount for Arbor support for existing SBS customers. We’re also offering a 25% discount for premium Arbor Insights reports.
