EmailCongratulations to Trinity Mirror for an enterprising piece of data journalism - a searchable database enabling parents to compare state schools around the UK.
The Real Schools Guide, which ran as a print supplement in the Saturday editions of the publishers' regional dailies, is now accessible through their websites. The Birmingham Mail's version can be seen here.
It is also available on the sites of the Manchester Evening News, Wales Daily Post, Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Newcastle Chronicle, Newcastle Journal, Teesside Evening Gazette, Coventry Telegraph and Liverpool Echo.
Schools are ranked by using 24 different measures (21 in Wales) compiled from the latest available data. While national league tables consider only GCSE results the Trinity Mirror ranking system aims to provide a more sophisticated evaluation of schools.
It takes into account factors such as attendance, ratio of teachers to pupils and the health of the school's finances.
The project was devised by Trinity Mirror's data unit. Its head of data journalism, David Ottewell, told journalism.co.uk: "Even though it's really just aggregating, it's doing so in a creative way which makes the data much more accessible for readers."
I've had a look at a couple of the sites, with their postcode-searchable maps, and it really does look like an excellent service. It is possible to see how well, or not, individual schools are performing.
Sources: Trinity Mirror/journalism.co.uk
;