Where available, you can compare a Virtual School’s performance to all CLA pupils across your DfE Region.
You’ll find the option to include/exclude this domain group within the Display Options of any applicable report (within Report Parameters).
List-based reports, such as Benchmarks, can include a DfE Region row. Just like the other domain rows, it’s subject to the same filtering and aggregation options.
On Trend reports, you can use the DfE Region as your comparison domain so a Virtual School’s year-on-year progress can be tracked against the region that the LA sits within.
The regions include LAs based on the DfE definition used in statistical first releases and other statistical packages.
Regional Averages Methodology Explained
A note on the methodology of calculating the DfE Region averages and percentages
A regional percentage or average is NOT an average of its member LA percentages or averages. Instead, the percentages and averages are based on all the pupils in the region. Therefore LA with more pupils have a greater impact on the results for the region than smaller LA in the same region. See the table below for an explanation.
Average of averages vs single set average
This arbitrary example highlights the differences in outcome between the two approaches to calculating a regional percentage:
Nova uses the Single Set Average methodology when calculating DfE Region averages and percentages.