Is lowest performing a definition based upon national or bench marking criteria?
Our guidance is based on the premise that there will be low performing schools who are not eligible to be Beacons or Specialist Schools and not well placed to benefit from contact with such schools, without some focused support to help them do that, which is why an EAZ seems an attractive solution. However, this doesn’t mean every school in the zone should be weak – links to strong schools, either in the zone or outside it, are necessary for improvement. And in some cases a small EAZ might not be based around the lowest performing schools, if there is a better solution for these schools locally, and an EAZ can be deployed more effectively on a different cluster. The key is that the partnership can demonstrate that weak schools, as well as improving ones, are supported in some way; and effective use is made of the available resources, including the EAZ. How this is done is something which will vary from one partnership area to another.
