The Challenge
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Each year, the DfE publishes the Achievement and Attainment Tables (AAT), providing comparative performance information for schools, colleges and local authorities in England. They provide the only source of accurate, comparative information on schools and colleges to the public and help increase standards in education.
The requirements set by the DfE were to demonstrate sound project management of a £25 million 5 year contract with multiple projects/work streams, deliverables and interactions with many different stakeholders. The ability to manage a complete system change whilst continuing to deliver was also of paramount importance.
The Project Approach
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RM Data Solutions involved the following stakeholders in this project: DfE, Ofsted, Primary and Secondary schools, FFT and Local Authorities. A Project Methodology based on Prince2 was utilised and developed with direction from, and in collaboration with the Client, to ensure that the consortium and client teams were using a common set of project artefacts (i.e. plans, risk/issue logs, actions tracking, highlight reports).
The Data Approach
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The work required is extremely complex with data provided by over 50 different data suppliers, relating to 8 million students and 21,000 schools. The work involves:
- Checking the accuracy of the contextual records of all secondary schools and colleges in England.
- Collating and validating 208,000 Schools and College absence returns for all of the 26,000 schools in England.
- Collating and validating over 10 million examination results, 3 million Key Stage 2 results data and data for 550,000 pupils in the 14,700 primary schools in England.
- Working in partnership with the DfE to develop the new School Report Card pilot
- The provision of a Helpdesk that provides timely, accurate information
The tables need to be 100% accurate and therefore the data checking and collation stages of the process are crucial as variables such as pupils taking exams set by different examination boards, information coming in late and students moving schools need to be considered. Emphasis is placed on an online data collection system, which reduces the burden on data providers and speeds up the validation process. By the department’s own admission, England has world beating data on every pupil and their progress. This status has been achieved in no small part with the excellent partnership of the Department, RM Data Solutions and RM.
The key features of RM Data Solutions’ approach are:
- Flexibility and adaptability to meet changes as mandated by the DfE and/or to reflect Government policy – and integrate these quickly and seamlessly into the work plan.
- A proactive approach in anticipating potential problems and in recommending procedural improvements.
- A full understanding of schools, data and policies.
- The fostering of a good working relationship with the DfE, the Examination Boards, schools and colleges.
- An ability to ‘translate’ detailed technical information so that it can be readily communicated to schools and Government officials.
- Provision of a help desk to answer any queries that the schools and colleges may have.
- Providing a highly experienced team who together to provide unparalleled domain knowledge.
Communication is Key
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Over the years, RM Data Solutions has developed an extremely good working relationship with the DfE, the examination Boards, schools and colleges. RM Data Solutions’ communication skills in the education sector are one of its great strengths and RM Data Solutions has a keen understanding of their customer and client needs.
Extensive use is made of shared collaboration workspaces to facilitate communication with the client on issues/risks, sub-board documentation (highlight reports, plan extracts). Regular reviews of the process and its support are held between the Programme Manager, Service Delivery Manager and Client to identify and address any issues and updates. At significant work stream milestones, and at the end of projects, reviews are held with the Client to assess lessons learned and identify actions to be taken into future work streams or annual cycles.
The Results
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By providing strong project support internally, and for the client, RM Data Solutions is able to effectively operate as the programme hub. This results in a programme where all deliverables across the various work streams are tracked and monitored as a matter of course. It also means that when unexpected events occur, e.g. external problems with marking of SATS, RM Data Solutions is able to quickly provide support for re-planning that was able to take into account dependencies across the programme.
Working closely with the DfE, RM Data Solutions continues to successfully ensure that the accuracy of this very important dataset is maintained at the highest levels possible. At the same time, RM Data Solutions is constantly striving to reduce the workload of schools and colleges when providing the data and has introduced web-based facilities that enable schools and colleges to check and amend data online.
If you require help in regards to DfE's Achievement & Attainment Tables (AATs). please email examshelp@rm.com or call The Schools Helpline on 020 7803 3344 (remember to include your DfE number).
If you have a similar need, call Paul Wright to discuss on 020 7803 3248 or alternatively email him on paul.wright@rm.com
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