First look at app-style reports to help parents compare schools

The report card project has been led by Camden Learning, a partnership between the local schools and the council, chaired by Dame Christine Gilbert, formerly England’s chief inspector of schools, running Ofsted for five years until 2011.

She says the “big idea” came from parents who wanted something to give them a real flavour of the school, such as how important sport was or the approach to discipline.

Dame Christine is “amazed at how it captures the ethos of the schools” and how strong the personal reactions are of parents who have tried it out.

In “Our School in 100 Words”, one secondary said it was feminist. And when that was shown to a focus group, one parent said they would “really want” their child to go there, while another “absolutely wouldn’t”.

Dame Christine says ministers and Ofsted should learn from the Camden project, as well as similar work under way in Sheffield and Milton Keynes.

“It’s really important we listen to the voices of parents,” she tells me, “and here in a very simple cost-effective way parents will have more information.”