It has been three years since our launch. Numerous reports, speaking engagements, public consultation responses – and more than 200 research blogposts – later we like to think we’ve established a reputation for ourselves with those in education who value evidence.

Today we announce a new name – FFT Education Datalab – that updates slightly our identity.

Since our launch in 2015, we have been part of the not-for-profit FFT – best known in schools for data analysis tool FFT Aspire – but this may not have always been apparent to everyone who engaged with our work. Our new name makes that link clearer.

FFT Education Datalab will continue to carry out independent, cutting-edge research on education policy and practice.

And we will also do more school-focused projects, bringing together the strengths that FFT Education Datalab and the wider FFT have – FFT Education Datalab’s rigorous research with the relationship that FFT has with schools, local authorities, multi-academy trusts and dioceses.

These projects will be designed to provide those working in schools with more research and insight that directly helps them in their roles.

We published the output of the first of these projects last month – an analysis for secondary schools of their Progress 8 scores by feeder primary school.

Today we are publishing two further reports stemming from this collaboration – one for primary schools and one for secondary schools. Details of the report for primary schools can be found here, and details for secondary schools can be found here. Both reports analyse value added scores in new ways, giving additional insight into schools’ performance.

We will continue to use our blog to shine a light on areas of the education world that we think need drawing to wider attention, and to carry out commissioned research to help fill evidence gaps that others have.

We also plan to talk more about the data underpinning our work, and to work to open up our methodology where possible.

Reflecting the name change, our website has moved to ffteducationdatalab.org.uk, and on Twitter we are now @FFTEduDatalab.

Read more about the reports published today for primary schools, and for secondary schools.

To find out more about FFT, visit fft.org.uk.

If you have any queries about what the name change means, please get in touch. Or, if you have a research project you would be interested in us carrying out, read more about commissioning us.

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