Governors and SEND Data for Governors Webinar

Governors and SEND Data Webinar
Part 2: Governors’ Guide – Understanding data for pupils with SEND

Governors don’t need to be data experts – but they do need to be confident in asking the right questions. When it comes to pupils with SEND, progress looks different, and traditional charts and ways of looking and judging progress can be misleading. The new Ofsted framework is clear: schools need to show how pupils are progressing from their individual starting points and to demonstrate that data is used meaningfully, not just collected.

Part 2 of this Governors and SEND Data webinar is aimed directly at governors. It will give you the tools to understand the data you are shown, so you can confidently challenge and support school leaders – judging progress fairly and meaningfully, without being overwhelmed by spreadsheets.

Drawing on experience as a progress data specialist and a governor, our Managing Director, Dale Pickles looks at:

• What “good progress” looks like when every pupil starts from a different point.
• Why low numbers don’t always mean bad progress – and why context matters.
• The risks of relying on targets or national datasets, and what to look for instead.
• How to balance numbers with professional judgement, pupil voice and wider outcomes.
• Why governors should expect data to be presented in a clear, accessible way – not handed a big spreadsheet to decode themselves.
• Key questions governors can ask to hold leaders to account without falling into data traps.
• What Ofsted actually expects (hint: it’s about how the school uses its data, not about the graphs themselves).