01 · Dashboard
See the position.
A concise visual overview of your school’s performance in comparison with genuinely comparable schools.
Approved sample
Violet High School 2026 Dashboard
The one-page Dashboard provides the complete headline view.
Understanding the Dashboard
A clear comparative starting point.
The Dashboard brings together published educational, teaching-capacity, workforce and financial data. It shows the school’s overall position and the areas contributing to it.
How to read your DashboardIndex, ranking, quartiles and assessment areas
100 = Peer Median
Each Index is centred on 100, representing the median performance of the school’s peer group. An Index above 100 indicates performance above the peer median; an Index below 100 indicates performance below it. The further an Index is from 100, the greater the difference from the typical performance of comparable schools.
Ranking and quartiles
Alongside each Index, the Dashboard shows the school’s rank within its peer group and the quartile in which it sits. Thresholds vary between Indices because they reflect the actual distribution of performance within the relevant peer group.
What the Indices measure
What does a lower Index mean?
A lower Index should not be interpreted in isolation as a judgement that a school is performing poorly. It identifies an area where the school differs from comparable schools and where the underlying measures may merit investigation. There may be legitimate contextual reasons for the difference.
The important question is: what is driving our position, and is there anything we need to understand or address?
How the Indices are calculatedFrom published data to Index, rank and quartile
- Published school dataWe use published information, primarily from Department for Education and GOV.UK datasets, covering educational performance, teaching capacity, workforce resilience and financial stewardship.
- Genuinely comparable schoolsWe identify a peer group with similar characteristics so that the comparison is fair and meaningful.
- Rank each measureSchools are ranked in order of more favourable performance, taking account of whether a higher or lower figure represents the better result.
- Convert rank to a Measure IndexEach rank is converted using a consistent median-centred formula. An Index of 100 represents the median school in the peer group.
- Create domain IndicesRelevant Measure Indices are combined using agreed weightings to produce Teaching Capacity, Workforce Resilience, Financial Stewardship and Educational Performance Indices.
- Calculate the Overall IndexThe four domain Indices are combined using fixed weights: Teaching Capacity 25%, Workforce Resilience 15%, Financial Stewardship 25% and Educational Performance 35%.
- Show Index, rank and quartileThe Dashboard presents each Index alongside its peer rank, quartile position and quartile thresholds.
Applied consistently. The same methodology is used for all schools. Weightings do not change between schools.
Peer numbers can vary. A school is included in a domain only where the required data is available, so comparator numbers may differ.
A tool for insight. A lower Index shows a relative position; the Performance Review helps explain the underlying factors.
Going beyond the Dashboard
The Dashboard shows where the school stands. The Performance Review examines the underlying measures and helps explain why.