In the new year, we will be publishing a Families of Schools database, to allow schools to compare their own performance with other similar schools across the country. It will provide a wealth of new information to help schools learn from the best performing institution in each family.
The tool puts schools into groups of 50 based on factors including prior attainment, percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals and the number of children with English as an additional language. The attainment of pupils on a range of measures can then be compared with similar schools. This will allow schools to understand the size and nature of their attainment gap in relation to other similar institutions for the first time and also learn from the best performing schools in their family.
Schools can also use the database to look at their performance in narrowing the attainment gap over the past three years and look at future projections based on how the school has performed in the past. Presenting the data in this way allows schools to identify early what changes need to be made for the attainment of pupils to improve in the future.
Other new developments on the EEF website in 2015 will include case studies of outstanding schools, practical guidance on evidence-based approaches and an interactive version of our DIY Evaluation Guide. Each tool is designed to help school leaders understand how the evidence in the Teaching and Learning Toolkit can be applied to schools in different contexts.