Disclosure of North Somerset schools 2020 gcse and a level results

The request was refused by Department for Education.

Nick Carter-Brown

Dear Department for Education,

Please provide an excel sheet for all North Somerset schools 2020 Gcse and A level results by subject detailing grade, volume, percentage.

Yours faithfully,

Nick Carter-Brown

MINISTERS, Department for Education

1 Attachment

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. If you are
contacting us about coronavirus (COVID-19) you can find advice and
guidance on [1]GOV.UK. This includes [2]guidance for educational settings
in England. You can also contact our coronavirus helpline on 0800 046
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For emails and other written enquiries you will usually receive a reply
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personal information by reading our [3]Privacy Notice.

 

 

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ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear  Nick Carter-Brown 

Thank you for your recent enquiry which was received on 19 March.

A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should
be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated
reference number 2021-0018839. 

Department for Education

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: [1]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [2]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [3]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

 

 

 

 

References

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ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear Nick,
 
Re: 2020 GCSE and A level pupils in North Somerset schools
 
Thank you very much for your email received on 19^th March 2021, reference
number: 2021-0018839, your request was as follows:
“Dear Department for Education, Please provide an excel sheet for all
North Somerset schools 2020 Gcse and A level results by subject detailing
grade, volume, percentage. Yours faithfully, Nick Carter-Brown.”
I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(“the Act”).

The Government announced that it will not publish any school or college
level educational data based on tests, assessments or exams for 2020
because of the way grades were awarded after the cancellation of exams (in
response to the Covid-19 epidemic). The original announcement from 23
March 2020 is available on [1]www.parliament.uk here:
[2]https://www.parliament.uk/business/publi...

As such, whilst the Department holds the information you requested for
2020, it is being withheld because the following exemption applies to this
information: Section 36(2)(c).
The Act says at section 36(2)(c) that certain information is exempt from
disclosure if disclosure of the information under the Act would otherwise
prejudice, or would be likely to prejudice, the effective conduct of
public affairs.
Section 36(2)(c) is a qualified exemption and therefore a public interest
test has been carried out and has concluded that the balance of public
interest falls in favour of the exemption in relation to the information
you have asked for. I have set out below the particular factors which the
Department has considered when deciding where the public interest lay.
In normal circumstances the application of S36(2)(C) requires a ‘qualified
person’ (a Minister in the case of a Government Department)  to make a
decision on whether disclosure would or would bel likely to have the
prejudicial or inhibiting effects specified. However, Section 36(4) states
that: ‘In relation to statistical information, subsections (2) and (3)
shall have effect with the omission of the words ‘in the reasonable
opinion of a qualified person’. Therefore, as this case relates to
statistical information, Section 36(2)(4) the opinion of a qualified
person is not required.

Arguments in favour of releasing this information:

 1. Generally transparency is a good thing, indeed DfE usually embrace
that concept and proactively publish performance tables.

Arguments against releasing this information:

 1. In 2020 results were derived by a completely different approach in
which teachers were asked to make very difficult judgements about what
a pupil would have achieved had the exams taken place. In order to
make that process as robust as possible it was very important that
teachers believed that they would not be ‘judged’ based on their
honest opinions about how pupils would perform in exams. Releasing
this information would seriously damage that trust teachers placed in
DfE when we promised not to publish this data at institution level,
and potentially impacts on the integrity of any similar exercise in
2021.

 

 2. Pupils are able to seek information about their own performance from
their school / college. Pupils are also able to appeal to the exam
board, via the school/college if they believe their final grade was a
product of a biased process within the school. Releasing data via FOI
is not necessary to address perceived unfairness in the awarding of
grades this year.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter.  Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request. 
 
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
  
Yours sincerely,
 
Gideon Ovadia | Executive Officer,
Correspondence team | Data Insight & Statistics | Data Directorate |
Operations Group
Department for Education | 1st Floor, Sanctuary Buildings, London SW1P 3BT
* [3][email address] | 0207 340 8002 | [4]www.gov.uk/dfe

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.parliament.uk/
2. https://www.parliament.uk/business/publi...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.gov.uk/dfe

Nick Carter-Brown

Dear Department for Education,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Education's handling of my FOI request 'Disclosure of North Somerset schools 2020 gcse and a level results'.

The situation is that the Alevel and GCSE exam results for 2020 are being withheld from public disclosure by the DFe.

I am writing to you to make the DFe aware that the schools are unaccountable to any empirical evaluation by the largest constituent of stakeholders.

The parents.

Nor is the layer of the academy oversight accountable to these parents either.

The DFe have committed to a course of action denying the public of top level data which otherwise would enable parents to derive at their own opinion as to the performance of the school tasked with educating their children.

There is literally no mechanism today that enables parents to benchmark the calibre of the education that their children are in receipt of.

The DFe argument is that a robust process for education assessment during 2020 existed and that any disclosure of the outcome from that robust process is not in the public interest as it would be "likely to prejudice, the effective conduct of public affairs."

Accepting covid, understanding the constraints and appreciative of best endeavours, however the DFe argument itself is sufficient rationale to merit challenge.

Non disclosure and failure to adhere to open and transparent processes to all stakeholders only serves to increase risk to children by creating a culture of collusion undermining children's rights to receive the best education possible through denying informed parental choice.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Yours faithfully,

Nick Carter-Brown

MINISTERS, Department for Education

1 Attachment

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. If you are
contacting us about coronavirus (COVID-19) you can find advice and
guidance on [1]GOV.UK. This includes [2]guidance for educational settings
in England. You can also contact our coronavirus helpline on 0800 046
8687. Lines are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm and weekends 10am to
4pm.

For emails and other written enquiries you will usually receive a reply
within 15 working days. You can find out how the department processes your
personal information by reading our [3]Privacy Notice.

 

 

[4]cid:image001.jpg@01D42E43.58989C30

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear  Nick Carter-Brown 

Thank you for your recent enquiry which was received on 8 April.

A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should
be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated
reference number 2021-0022163.

 

Department for Education

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: [1]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [2]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [3]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.education.gov.uk/
2. https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
3. https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

 

Dear Nick,
 
I refer to your request for an internal review which was received on 8
April 2021. You requested:
 


* I am writing to request an internal review of Department for
Education's handling of my FOI request 'Disclosure of North
Somerset schools 2020 gcse and a level results'.

 


* The situation is that the Alevel and GCSE exam results for 2020
are being withheld from public disclosure by the DFe.

 


* I am writing to you to make the DFe aware that  the schools are
unaccountable to any empirical evaluation by the largest
constituent of stakeholders.

 


* The parents.

 


* Nor is the layer of the academy oversight accountable to these
parents either.

 


* The DFe have committed to a course of action denying the public
of top level data which otherwise would enable parents to derive
at their own opinion as to the performance of the school tasked
with educating their children.

 


* There is literally no mechanism today that enables parents to
benchmark the calibre of the education that their children are in
receipt of.

 


* The DFe argument is that a robust process for education
assessment during 2020 existed and  that any disclosure of the
outcome from that robust process is not in the public interest as
it would be "likely to prejudice, the effective conduct of public
affairs."

Accepting covid, understanding the constraints and appreciative of best
endeavours, however the DFe argument itself is sufficient rationale to
merit challenge.

Non disclosure and failure to adhere to open and transparent processes to
all stakeholders only serves to increase risk to children by creating a
culture of collusion undermining children's rights to receive the best
education possible through denying informed parental choice.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on
the Internet at this address:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...
 
The department has now completed its internal review process and has
carried out a thorough review of the case, chaired by a senior official
who was not involved with the original request.  The department has
decided to uphold the original decision not to disclose the information
concerned, for the same reasons set out in the letter of 8 April 2021.

If you are unhappy with this decision, you have the right to appeal
directly to the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner can
be contacted at:

           The Case Reception Unit
           Customer Service Team
           Information Commissioner’s Office
           Wycliffe House
           Water Lane
           Wilmslow
           Cheshire
           SK9 5AF

Further information about the Information Commissioner’s complaints
procedure can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...

Yours Sincerely,
 
 

 
 
Gideon Ovadia | Executive Officer,
Correspondence team | Data Insight & Statistics | Data Directorate |
Operations Group
Department for Education | 1st Floor, Sanctuary Buildings, London SW1P 3BT
* [2][email address] | 0207 340 8002 | [3]www.gov.uk/dfe

 
 

 

 
 

References

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2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.gov.uk/dfe