How to Compare Your School

Benchmarking is far from an exact science and can be difficult to do, as there are so many variables to take into account. Hopefully we can give you some general tips, based on experience, to help.

In general, benchmarking rarely answers your questions. It invariably raises further points to be discussed and comparisons to be made and is therefore a useful starting point.

There are several factors that may influence the level of income/expenditure within a school or areas where you may wish to compare yourself with other schools. These include:

Size of the school

Entitlement to free school meals
Number of pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL)
Physical location of the school
Pupil/Teacher ratios and Pupil/Educational Support Staff ratios

If you identify an area where your school appears to have a different level of income or expenditure to others with similar pupil numbers, you may wish to look further into the above points. You may also find it helpful to look at how the funding has been allocated by looking at the School Budgets.

You may also wish to find out more about yours or other schools’ Service Districts and the particular issues they may face, detailed in the School Organisation plan 2008

Generally speaking we would recommend that you start by selecting the graph showing expenditure as a percentage of income. This will, demonstrate the proportionate amount you spend on teaching, resources, repairs etc, compared to other schools.

You can also look at the actual value you spend on income or expenditure for each CFR heading and also your total income or expenditure and compare this to other schools.

Information on staffing is available from the staffing table, which allows you to compare the number of full time equivalent staff in your school with those for all schools within your sector. This is represented on a cost per pupil and per staff basis.

The Premises table shows the level of expenditure for 2003/04 - 2007/08 and compares this to the amount of funding allocated to the school. Part of repairs funding allocation is based on the condition of the building. If a school consistently underspends compared to the amount funded it may indicate that there has been an under-investment in the schools' buildings. Capital income and expenditure is also included here for similar reasons.

The 2007-08 Comparison table shows the 2007-08 year-end balances as submitted by the school to the Local Authority. It shows this as an amount per pupil and compares this to the sector average per pupil.

The CFR by Year table shows the year-end balances as submitted by the school to the Local Authority for 2003/04- 2007/08.

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