How to compare schools for your child
Most school comparison ends up as a table of Ofsted grades and a gut feeling. This is the method SpotWise automates, written out so you can follow it with a spreadsheet if you prefer.
1. Start from the child, not the league table
Write down four or five things this particular child needs: stretch in maths, a calm room, a strong music offer, a mixed intake, close friends nearby. That list is your criteria set.
2. Pick criteria you can evidence
Attainment and progress, persistent absence, cohort size, pupil to teacher ratio, intake mix and Ofsted history are all published. Atmosphere and warmth are not; save those for the visit.
3. Weight them, and make the weights add to 100
If everything matters equally, nothing is decisive. Forcing the weights to total 100 makes the trade-offs explicit and repeatable across every school on the list.
4. Score against a benchmark, not against each other
Compare each figure to the national picture, so a shortlist of three strong schools does not make one of them look weak by accident.
5. Be honest about missing data
When a figure is not published for a school, do not score it zero. Drop the criterion for that school and redistribute its weight, then say so on the page.
6. Caveat small cohorts
In a year group under thirty pupils, one or two children swing the percentages. Treat those numbers as indicative and shrink them toward the national mean.
7. Finish at the school gate
Take the ranking and the figures to the visit, and use them to ask specific questions. Data narrows the list; the visit decides it.