School profiles are not ready yet

By Gary Eason
Education editor, BBC News website

When it works... graphics illustrate statistical information

Many schools have not completed the profiles parents were promised, to provide better information about their ethos and performance.

The online profiles in England should have been available this term.

They were introduced by last year's Education Act, replacing the annual governors' report to parents.

Information about Ofsted reports and test results is filled in by government officials, while schools have to describe the year's highs and lows.

But the BBC News website has discovered that few profiles have so far been completed.

Some head teachers have reported problems with the passwords they need to access the web-based forms used to compile the profile.

Individual needs

The "warts and all" narrative sections schools have to complete each year from now on are 100 to 200 words long.

They include:

• What have been our successes this year?
• What are we trying to improve?
• How have our results changed over time?
• How are we making sure that every child gets teaching to meet their individual needs?
• How do we make sure our pupils are healthy, safe and well-supported?
• What have we done in response to Ofsted?
• What activities are available to pupils?
• How are we working with parents and the community?
• What have pupils told us about the school, and what have we done as a result?
• What do our pupils do after leaving this school?

Once the profiles are complete they will be available to parents at the ParentsCentre website run by the Department for Education and Skills.

A spartan front page requires people to enter a school name - there is no facility to browse lists of schools or search by postcode, for example.

From the initial page of search results (whether successful or not) it is possible to "refine" the search by entering a town, county or postcode and/or say whether the search is for infant, primary, secondary or special schools.

However, this is somewhat hit and miss at present.

"Your search in School Profile for all schools in Birmingham produced 0 results" was a typical return.

A search for "Kent" - England's biggest education authority, with hundreds of primary schools alone - found just six schools.

In the whole of Sheffield, four schools. In Bradford, only two.

Ethos

In the government's Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners, published in 2004, the then education secretary Charles Clarke said all parents and pupils would be able to choose from "more good and excellent schools in their local community".

The "parent guarantee" pledged: "A new School Profile will give better information about a school's performance."

As the Education Bill was published, Mr Clarke promised "school profiles that will give parents a balanced assessment of each school's ethos, characteristics, performance and improvement priorities".

"This will reduce bureaucracy for schools by replacing the annual governors' report and enable parents to make informed decisions based on a more comprehensive picture of school life," he said.

The government is now promising parents a profile for every single pupil.

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We asked you to send us your experiences. Here are a selection of the responses.

Technical hitches prevented our school from getting to the profile site for weeks at a time. Unanswered emails despite the promise of a prompt reply. A busy Summer term is upon us ... with government tests for pupils. The format is a straight jacket for schools. Have so far managed two sections. Messages such as, 'You have used too many characters. Delete before going further' are off putting. The whole process is conducted in the imperative form and is simply not conducive to information sharing with the community we serve. We shall finish the work, when we have time. This will probably be the Summer break. A singing telegram would be easier to perform. One out of 10 and stay in at play time DfES!
C Rice, Dronfield

The school profile is intended to replace the governors Annual Report to Parents. In doing so it does not need to be available to anyone else. So why host it on a government website. Why not host it on each schools website. Fancy search capabilities are only useful to bored journalists and the like.
Feargal Hogan, Surrey

I am head teacher of a local primary school and was asked by my chair of governors about our school profile. I looked blank and said that other than I knew that they were in the pipeline, I knew nothing. I have received no information about this and checked the local authority website, to find no information or guidance about profiles.

The DfES continue to inform governors and others that profiles should be in place by July 06, yet tell head teachers nothing about them! In the afternoon I met with colleagues from the local cluster, who all had a similar response to me; they knew profiles were on the way, but no more. One had tried to access the website, but found that the data that was supposed to be there wasn't. There are so many incidences of the government forging ahead with announcements and strategies when they do not have the infrastructure or materials required ready.
David Simon, Brighton

I emailed the helpdesk three weeks ago asking about passwords etc., I have so far received no reply.
Shelagh Cosgrow, East Tilbury Essex England

The web page www.parentscentre/schoolprofile is the link users are directed to use from the DfES website to find school profiles. When this is followed, the user is informed that this is an unknown subject. The page one is redirected to is not a government website at all. I am interested as to how you found DfES School profiles at all, given that I'm a professional educational software tester, spending every day working in this exact field - and I couldn't.
Owen O'Donnell, Brighton, England

I work as a School Business Manager in a primary school; I am also a parent of 4 children. My experience and opinion of the school profile is mixed - as a parent I do not feel that this is the best way to choose a school - the profile is very much standards/achievements/government driven - school's have much greater qualities than the profile allows you to document.

The titles given to each paragraph are very specific; schools have to be very careful about choosing the wording for each area as this will be one of the first ways of people knowing about the school. A profile for every pupil - how much time do they think the people or work and manage schools have?

The Government already has us completing our own self evaluation for Ofsted; completing school profiles for parents; constantly trying to improve standards; providing comprehensive pupil assessment data and attendance data. There are limits to what a few people are actual capable of - work/life balance for all!
Julie Gibbons, Warrington, England

I have been searching for the profiles for months, having first heard about them in The Guardian's education supplement. It was impossible to find anything about them on the Parents Centre website and they do not seem to have been well publicised. My daughter's school is not yet listed (nothing for Kirklees Council).
Carol Cheetham, Bradford, UK

Frustrated - cannot gain access due to the lack of a password. No response from the e-mail I sent requesting help.
David Miller, Sunderland

Try "advanced Search". Leave everything blank but check the 4 phase check boxes. I was then told that there are 316 profiles.

A random check of half a dozen left one with the feeling that they were not good bedtime reading.

The presentation is poor and the ones I looked at were difficult to read. A pervasive feeling of boredom falls upon one. This is not entirely the fault of the schools as the format is fixed by the DfES.

One PDF version did not load and caused errors (Wisewood School & Community Sports College, Sheffield).

The text in each section is in response to a question with a differing amount of space for each question.

For primary schools there are about 10 questions as below with max no of characters for each.

"What activities are available to pupils?" (800) "What have been our successes this year?" (1000) "What are we trying to improve?" (1000) "How are we making sure we are meeting the learning needs of individual pupils?" (1200) "How do we make sure our pupils are healthy, safe and well-supported?" (800) "What activities are available to pupils?" (800) "How are we working with parents and the community?" (800) "What have pupils told us about the school, and what have we done as a result?" (800) "What do our pupils do after leaving this school?" (650) "What have we done in response to Ofsted?" (800)

Which the government blithely translates as 100 to 200 words per question and it asserts that the answers to all questions don't have to be entered at once. Wow!

To answer each question adequately, reduce it to the requisite size and enter it into the online box cannot be less than three or four Hours work so there is about one weeks' full time work for someone excluding time taken at governing body meetings to review and agree the answers.

Some governing bodies are leaving it to the Head Teacher to write the answers and put them in. Others are asking individual members of the governing body to take a question away and derive an answer. Someone still has to type it in and make sure it is under the limit.

Head Teachers and Governing Bodies also have the SEF (Self Evaluation Form) to complete and update. That is used as the basis for the new style OFSTED inspections so woe betide those schools that don't keep that up to date!
Andrew, Melton Mowbray

A quick search on the risible 'School Profiles' website appears to show that only 315 schools have entered their data. Can't find the figures, but that has to be <10% of the total number. Probably reflects that fact that this is just one of numerous 'initiatives' thrown at schools, and senior leaders will have to fit this work in with all of the other accountability exercises.
Andy, North Somerset