The Chair of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) Cymru and head of one of Wales’ oldest schools says confidence has already been lost in the new school banding system.

Neil Foden of Ysgol Friars in Bangor calls the banding system, which starts next month, ‘imperfect’, because neither schools, parents nor civil servants understand it, BBC News reports.

The school banding system, uses national data on school performance to group schools together into one of five ‘performance bands’. The band model uses data such as: GCSE results, free school meal eligibility, attendance record and progress in order to categorise schools.

"This system is an imperfect way of measuring schools,” Mr Foden stated. "For example, if we were able to recruit seven additional children from disadvantaged households who are eligible for free school meals even though we had done nothing to improve our own performance, we would almost certainly go up a quartile. Even though we had done nothing our performance would suddenly look better. Clearly that isn't a healthy state of affairs. It could be misleading."

Schools have been provisionally told which band they are in but Plaid Cymru say they are concerned the system may be perceived in the same way as school league tables.

Plaid Education Spokesman Simon Thomas commented: “Plaid Cymru does not want our schools to be micro-managed. The Labour Minister [Leighton Andrews] is seeking to name and shame schools he considers to be underperforming, but this could only undermine them further.

The Education Minister has himself conceded that league tables are 'simplistic' and 'destructive' yet continues to establish them in Wales by another name. What the minister has announced so far will only serve to highlight the gap between 'good' schools and 'bad' schools without addressing the reasons for failure.”

A spokesman for Education Minister Leighton Andrews defended the school banding system, commenting: "If Friars' school now thinks it should do more to engage with young people from deprived backgrounds, that in itself is a positive outcome of the banding exercise.

As Mr Foden says, there is no such thing as a perfect system, but, the banding approach is based on the most up-to-date and reliable data available and mathematical modelling."

To read more on the school banding system, follow these links:

• Welsh schools to be placed in performance bands
• School banding scores are revealed to Headteachers
• 55 per cent vote for return of school league tables

For the latest education news and information, why not sign up to our free e-newsletter or RSS Feed.