Added Value

‘Added value’ refers to the difference between the GCSE or A Level grades a pupil would get at an ‘average’ school and the grades that they actually achieve.

Added value is tracked as part of a long-term project run by Durham University that processes over 40,000 Year 7 pupils per year.  In Year 7, pupils sit a MidYIS test and the results are submitted to the project.  Over the last 25 years, thousands of pupils’ test scores have been compared with their GCSE results which allows Durham University to provide statistical predictions for each pupil, benchmarked against other pupils.  ALIS grades are calculated at the start of Year 12 when pupils embark upon their A Levels and used in the same way.

Within school, these predictions are used as a baseline to set internal targets for pupil outcomes and against which to monitor pupil progress.  GCSE and A Level Public Exam results are sent to Durham University and a ‘value added’ score is calculated which analyses the difference between the predicted and actual results.  An ‘average’ score would gain an overall value added score of zero, while a good school might expect an average uplift of a significant proportion of a grade per pupil.  Dunottar achieves good value added results.