HEADTEACHER Emily Armstrong has described as ‘amazing’ news that her school has been ranked the best state-funded school in Cheshire in the Real Schools Guide 2020.

Emily Armstrong is headteacher at Bexton Primary School, and said: “This is amazing news, and is testament to the hard work of staff, pupils, governors and parents who all work together to make Bexton a fantastic place to learn. Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way.”

The guide aims to give a far more comprehensive picture than traditional league tables and takes into account 45 data points which look at the wider elements of a school such as progress, pupil-teacher ratios and absence rates as well as overall attainment.

Schools are rated in the guide based upon results, teaching, progress, and attendance.

The ranking system uses 45 different measures, put together from the latest publicly available data covering up to the 2018/19 school year, broken into four indicators.

National league tables only look at overall Key Stage 2 results and progress scores, which may mean schools which help all pupils make progress but only get slightly better than average results overall may be overlooked.

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But this ranking system aims to move beyond just looking at Key Stage 2 results as a measure of how good schools are and to give parents an idea of which schools will help their child prosper, no matter what their background is.

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As a result, the league table tries to factor in other things as well, like whether all pupils are making progress (not just those expected to get top grades), what attendance is like, the ratio of teachers to pupils and whether pupils are doing better than expected.