The Alps START Project Returns for 2024: Empowering Schools with Comprehensive Start of Term Analysis, Results and Trends
July 2024 – England Only
Alps Education, a leading provider of school and college performance analysis, is pleased to announce the return of its hugely popular START project for the 2024 academic year.
By taking part in the START Project, Alps schools and colleges across England will be able to benchmark their own performance more effectively, using the latest results data submitted by Alps’ customers alongside the DfE’s national datasets.
What is the Alps START Project?
Building on the success of previous years, the annual Alps START Project offers Start of Term Analysis, Results and Trends.
It provides detailed, comparative analysis and insight into KS4 and KS5 examination results, exclusively for Alps users and not available from any other providers.
Alps uses results submitted by their customers to establish benchmarks for KS4 and KS5, offering Alps schools and colleges insightful, opportune data at the start of the Autumn term.
This is in addition to the usual Alps benchmarks created from the DfE’s national dataset. Both options will be accessible via a toggle feature in Alps Connect – Alps’ powerful platform for data analysis at student and school level.
How to Get Involved in the Alps START Project
To ensure your data is included in the analysis and to meet Alps’ robust timeline, existing Alps schools will need to submit examination results to Alps Connect by 5pm on the Friday of Results weeks:
A level and BTEC:
- Results Day: Thursday, 15 August
- Deadline: Friday, 16 August
GCSE:
- Results Day: Thursday, 22 August
- Deadline: Friday, 23 August
The benefits of the Alps START Project against the unique nature of 2023/24’s predicted examination outcomes
Commenting on the decision to continue the START Project for another year, Alps Director of Education, Sue Macgregor, said:
“All schools and colleges using Alps will benefit from submitting data to the 2024 START Project.
‘For example, at Key Stage 5 outcomes are again set to be unique this summer, as students completing their Key Stage 5 courses have elevated prior attainment baselines from the Key Stage 4 outcomes in 2022.
‘Since the overall standards are likely to remain similar to 2019 levels, this will cause analysis based on the 2019 DfE National data on Results Day to be more ‘blue’ than perhaps it is in reality, making it harder to compare your own school/college performance against national datasets alone.
‘The Alps customer benchmarks at both KS4 and KS5 will help to take some of the guesswork away, providing analysis on a more nuanced level, and allowing senior leaders to more easily identify areas of focus from the start of term in 2024/25.”
The default benchmark in Alps Connect on Results Day will utilise the 2023 DfE National data, though it remains uncertain how 2024 standards will compare to the previous year.
New for START 2024: T-Levels Feasibility Study
On Results Day, schools and colleges can also upload their T-Level examination results as part of 2024’s START Project.
Alps will conduct a feasibility study on this data to determine the possibility of generating Minimum Expected Grades (MEGs) and thermometers from T-Level data. The timeline for this study is as follows:
- Initiation: Thursday, 26 September 2024
- Communication of Outcomes: Monday, 30 September 2024
To support the creation of valuable T-level benchmarks, Alps is urging schools and colleges to submit their data by Wednesday, 25 September.
Where to Find More Information
Existing Alps users can find more information in our Knowledge Base, accessible from the Connect Homepage.
If you’re not an Alps school yet, but you’d like to learn more about Alps and how your school or college can get involved next year, Book a Demo here to speak to one of our friendly team today.
