Trust and transparency

How WhatSchool Celebrates works

Every recognition can be traced to a measure, a comparison group and a source - in plain English. We find genuine strengths in the information published about every school, frame them cautiously and in context, and invite each school to activate the recognition - confirming the wording of its official materials. The worked examples below use primary schools; secondary and special recognitions follow the same frames and thresholds, with their full documentation being prepared now.

We read Ofsted reports as one source of context, but a celebration is never an Ofsted judgement and we are not a regulator. Recognition is earned from the evidence, not paid for.

The short version

In plain English

We start with the figures the DfE publishes to find genuine strengths, then read each one in the context the school actually works in - looking beyond those figures to the school’s own website, local authority information, published Ofsted reports, and the Census and local measures of need such as deprivation (IMD). We compare each school against a fair peer group, check it clears a credible threshold, and invite the school to activate the wording as official. We never imply a school is “the best” overall, and a recognition is a specific, single-year strength - not an overall rating.

Where the published figures allow, a school can be recognised across the latest two years for each measure and choose which of those celebrations to show - up to six on its certificate, poster and school-gate banner, each one year-stamped. Most run 2024/25 and 2023/24; some DfE releases publish later - progress, the workforce census and school-level suspensions - so those use the latest two years available, which can run a year or two behind. Each recognition is identified from the published evidence; a school can activate it to confirm the wording, add a quote and unlock the official materials.

At a glance

Key facts

SourceDfE published figures, read in context

Academic year2024/25

Primary schools assessed16,678

Comparison framesTown, local authority, national, in context

Celebrations a school can earn31

Years recognisedLatest two published, per measure

Maximum on a school’s assets6

Four fair comparisons

The frames a school is read against

A strength only counts if it holds up against the right peers. We read each one through up to four frames, most local first, and a school can claim whichever fits it best - each one showing where it genuinely stands, read in context, not a single overall ranking of every school.

In your town

For a school in a town, how it stands among the other schools in that town - including whether it is the best in town for a given strength.

Local authority

Compared with every primary across the same local authority.

National

Compared with primary schools across England.

In context

Compared with schools facing a similar published context - and, where the data allows, the specific set of schools most like yours - using the advanced, beyond-free-school-meals measure we have built.

The detail

Advanced methodology

What we look at

Every celebration starts from what the DfE publishes about primary schools - Key Stage 2 results (reading, writing and maths, plus progress and how well disadvantaged pupils do), overall and improving attendance, the teaching and support-staff picture, school finances, what parents say in the DfE Parent View survey, and published suspensions and exclusions. We read each of these in the context the school actually works in, drawing on its own website, local authority information, published Ofsted reports, the national Census and local measures of need such as deprivation (IMD). A school can also earn a bespoke celebration for things the figures cannot show. Each recognition records its measure, source and year.

How the comparisons work

Town standing is shown as a position - for example, best in your town - because a town holds only a handful of schools. The local authority, national and in-context comparisons are banded into Top 1%, 5% or 10%. In context means reading a school against others facing similar circumstances, and we do it in two ways: against every school in a similar published context (grouped by the advanced, beyond-free-school-meals measure we have built), and - where the data allows - against the specific set of schools most like it, its closest peers, found by matching on disadvantage, English as an additional language, special educational needs and size. A school can claim whichever frame fits it best.

Ranks, tiers and group size

A band is only awarded when the comparison group is large enough for it to be a real cut (national 500+, in context 50+, local authority 10+), so a strength is never claimed against a handful of schools. Some measures saturate at the top - almost every parent agreeing their child is safe, or a year with no suspensions - so instead of a rank we award them as an achievement and state the true figure. The precise placement behind a band - for example 47th of 412 in England, or 3rd of 28 in your town - is part of the school’s activated pack, shown as a specific position read in context, not a single overall ranking of every school.

The advanced context measure

We have built an advanced measure of the context each school works in, deliberately far more than the single, blunt proxy of how many children claim free school meals. It is layered from published sources - the Census, deprivation (IMD), local authority information, published Ofsted reports and the school’s own website - makes no pupil-level claims, and we do not seek pupil data. It helps us read a strength fairly and is shown as observed published context only; it never awards, scores or ranks a recognition, and is not used to decide whether a school is celebrated.

Bespoke celebrations and surveys

Some of what makes a school special never shows up in a dataset. For schools that want it, and only with the school’s consent, we can survey its staff and parents to recognise those things directly, as bespoke celebrations. These are always opt-in, never bought, and they sit alongside the evidence-led recognitions - never inside them.

Activation and accuracy

Recognitions are identified from published data - we have done that work so a school does not have to. A school can activate a recognition to confirm the wording, add a quote and unlock the official materials, and can ask us to review anything that looks wrong. A school can never pay to win, change or remove a recognition.

What does a school pay for?

Never the recognition itself. Every celebration is identified free of charge, from the published evidence, in exactly the same way for every school. What a school pays for is activation - a licence for the printed materials, the approved wording, its verification page and the right to display the recognition. A school can never pay to win, change or keep a celebration.

Limitations

Recognitions are specific, single-year strengths, not overall ratings, and we re-run them against the latest figures each year. We suppress any that rest on a very small cohort, where a few children would swing the result. Published information can be incomplete or lagged. A celebration shows a specific strength read in context - not a single overall ranking of every school, an inspection outcome or an Ofsted judgement.

Spotted something wrong?

Recognitions are reviewed annually and re-run against the latest figures. Tell us if anything looks off.

Report a correction

How WhatSchool Celebrates works

We read Ofsted reports as one source of context, but a celebration is never an Ofsted judgement and we are not a regulator. Recognition is earned from the evidence, not paid for.