Commenting following the publication of this year’s school banding data, Aled Roberts, Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Minister said:
“No matter how schools in Wales have performed over the year, we already know that there will be a fixed amount of schools in each band. That is too crude and simplistic a system. Too often we are hearing of how parents are confused about why their children’s school has been re-banded despite the fact its results have stayed the same.
“In too many cases, the banding system and the results of Estyn inspections are at odds with each other and this creates uncertainty and instability within the sector.
“An Estyn report confirmed this week that there is still not an appropriate system in place to track individuals’ progress. The Welsh Liberal Democrats believe that monitoring the performance of each individual pupil would be a far more effective way to raise standards, as then we could identify children who were not achieving their potential. The Welsh Government could also monitor the performance of a school on the basis of how many of its pupils were meeting their individual targets.
“The outcome of the promised review of the current banding system must be one in which schools and consortia are absolutely clear about standards.”
