Blog
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Making Progress in Primary Education
Progress has had two distinct meanings in education for the last decade. Richard Selfridge looks at the imminent return of Progress Measures, and what this means for Primary schools. Read Article…
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2026 Value Added Calculator
An updated Value Added calculator tool for 2026, with the new prior attainment groups and associated benchmark estimates. Explore the impact of individual pupils on overall progress scores, and see how removing pupils affects your data. Read Article…
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Primary Accountability: navigating without a map
Delayed and out-of-date guidance, mistakes in calculations, and some jaw-droppingly big increases in progress benchmarks. When it comes to understanding primary accountability measures this year, schools are lost in the mountains without a reliable map. Read Article…
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Key Stage 2 attainment: who’s included and who isn’t?
The 2026 KS2 performance measures data checking window is open from 7th September to 18th September. James Pembroke looks at what school leaders need to know. Read Article…
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KS2 Results 2026
Key Stage 2 Results were published just over a week late in 2026; in this post we explore the headlines and put these in context. Read Article…
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Insight’s National Estimated PSC & MTC outcomes in 2025/26
This year there was somewhat of a shock as the PSC Expected Standard changed for the first time in its history. We also look at our Estimated National Statistics for the PSC and MTC. Read Article…
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KS1 outcomes in 2025/26
In Insight, we have maintained an option to record non-statutory KS1 data in our system. Read our analysis of the results for 2025-26. Read Article…
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The Return of Progress
This year sees the return of Key Stage 1-2 primary progress measures after a two year hiatus so it’s worth reflecting on how they are calculated and how the results are used. Primary school progress measures have been around in various guises for years. Back in the days of RAISEonline, there were two measures of progress: levels and value-added (VA). Everyone understood the levels measure and tended to focus on it because there were floor standards attached. Value-added? Not so much. It was complicated, weirdly centred on an average score of 100 (it’s now set at 0), and turned blue… Read Article…
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Absolute vs relative assessment data
Teacher assessment data tends to fall into one of two camps: absolute and relative. James Pembroke considers the issues which arise when attempts are made to combine the two types of data, and suggests an approach which schools might take. Read Article…
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Percentage gaps and pupil equivalence
If you are trying to make sense of your IDSR or any other source of data where percentages of pupils are compared to national figures, it is well worth converting gaps into the equivalent number of pupils. Read Article…
