It’s been a year of change at Mime. In 2022, we’ve welcomed three new colleagues to the team, worked with new clients and moved offices. After five years in Clapham, we are now just behind the Tate Modern and enjoying the sights in central London. We’ve continued to expand our expertise in new sectors, including health, poverty, and advice provision. All of this, alongside our regular work in the education sector and refining our existing products.
Check out some of the highlights of our year below
1. School Improvement was back!
After a hiatus in our School Improvement work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were thrilled to be able to offer this again to our clients across local authorities and Multi-Academy Trusts. We’ve been busy this year preparing for, and delivering, our On The Day results services and Super School Profiles, to help schools understand their results and inform strategic decision-making for children who have had a gap in their assessments.
2. We’ve been supporting the growing community of Little Wandle schools
We’ve been very excited to see Little Wandle go from strength to strength this year, and continue to support them with teacher and pupil assessment tracking. We loved joining them to celebrate 3,000 subscribers in May and, since then, the numbers have only risen further – we’re now tracking and analysing data for more than 4,000 schools!
3. We expanded our evaluation work
At the beginning of the year, we began working with the team at Wavehill on our evaluation of the Advice in Community Settings grant programme with the GLA. Together with eleven advice partnerships, we have been gathering data to understand the impact of the funding. You can find out more about this project and our findings so far here.
4. Launched impactful reports
In 2022, we continued our partnership with the Open Data Institute and launched two data reports and interactive tools. The first, on food insecurity, highlighted gaps in government and third sector data when it comes to knowing who is going hungry, where they are and what is being done about it. In the second, on fuel poverty, we built a composite index that brought together twelve datasets to highlight which areas of the country are most at risk from fuel poverty.
5. Made use of NPD and LEO data
Working with two fantastic organisations in TASO and Future Frontiers, we’ve had new requests for research projects using NPD and LEO data approved by the DfE. Using the ONS provided secure research environment we’re able to track anonymous cohorts of children over time and investigate and benchmark data on the impacts of their work – especially with disadvantaged young people.
6. Developed our forecasting and statistics work
One key area of development for us this year has been our forecasting and statistics work. We have been working with new local authorities to build statistical models that can predict what their SEND and looked after children cohorts may look like in the future.
Highlights from the Mime blog
- Exams were back in 2022! After two years of disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 was to be treated as a transition year, with results below 2021 but above 2019. We created tools to analyse GCSE and A level results, allowing you to explore trends over time and how grades differed based on subjects.
- This return of exam results also allowed us to update our Level 3 Transition Matrices, which shows pupil progress from Key Stage 4 attainment bands to Level 3 qualification grades. We saw that grades in language A levels, particularly those beyond the traditional choices, were less related to prioir attainment than other subjects.
- After the government released its SEND and alternative provision Green Paper, we considered the proposals and whether they are likely to meet the Government’s ambition to ensure all children and young people have access to the right support, in the right place, and at the right time. In particular, we considered the implications for data and technology
- We took a deep dive into destinations after Key Stage 4 and considered the impact of attending a school with a sixth form. We found that, while attainment and disadvantage did play a part, attending a school with a sixth form greatly increases your chances of attending any kind of sixth form after KS4.
- Following the publication of data on pupil absence, we analysed how absence has changed following the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that absence is on the rise, particularly among vulnerable groups, and a staggering 7 million extra school days were lost due to pupil illness in the 21/22 Autumn term compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.
What we’re doing to support our community
We have made a donation on behalf of our team and partners to Southwark Foodbank. This donation was inspired by our work with the ODI on food poverty this year. Unfortunately we have not been able to host any students from our local special school this year but we look forward to working with the school to provide real-life work experience for young people with SEND in the future.
Looking forward to 2023
We’re continuing to grow our team in 2023, so keep an eye out on our Jobs page!
Over 2023, we will be continuing to develop our products and expertise both in and beyond the education sector. In particular, we will be focussing on young people with SEND and updating our Inclusion Index. We look forward to continuing to work together next year, and we wish you all a happy new year!
Get in touch if you would like to hear more about any of these projects, products or services
