New online tool launched to help parents choose primary school for kids

ملخص مفصل

EXCLUSIVE: Parents will no longer have to spend hours trawling through documents and websites when picking a school for their children after the launch of an online profiles system

Parents will no longer have to spend hours trawling through documents and websites when picking a school for their children after the launch of a new online profiles tool.

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she wants to make it easier for mums and dads to find basic information such as whether their child’s prospective school has a breakfast club or their attainment rankings.

Speaking to The Mirror, the Cabinet minister said it is “far too hard” to find relevant details under the current system and pledged to ensure parents aren’t “spectators” in their child’s education.

A new online tool allowing parents to see a school or college's profile by searching a site name or their postcode will launch on Friday. It will bring together information about the school's location, age range, attendance, results and wider offerings, like free breakfast clubs.

For parents of older children, there will be information about secondary schools’ GCSE subject entries and the next steps pupils took after year 11, such as going on to further education, apprenticeships or employment.

The service will continue to develop after its launch, with a side-by-side comparison feature currently offered for secondary schools to be rolled out to primary schools - and Ofsted reports will be incorporated next year.

The government is also announcing two new independent and expert-led School-Parent Partnership Alliances, bringing together experts, schools, trusts and parents to build stronger relationships between families and schools.

New findings show that children whose parents received clear information about their progress achieved higher GCSE results and were less likely to be persistently absent from school.

Where parents described information about their child’s progress as “very clear”, pupils achieved around six additional Attainment 8 points in Year 11 and had 27% lower odds of persistent absence.

مطلع المقال، مقتطف من Daily Mirror. لقراءة المقال كاملًا، افتحه على موقع الناشر.