Benchmarking

Benchmarking compares your school’s summative judgements with those of other schools that use Sonar, nationally and in your local authority. It runs at autumn 2, spring 2 and summer 2 only.

Where to find it: select Benchmarking in the left menu, then EYFS or Primary.

Who can see it: schools with the Benchmarking module. Without it, Benchmarking shows a crown icon and opens an information page.

What Benchmarking compares

Figure	What it is
School	Your school’s results for each subject and year group, live from Sonar
Juniper National	The average for all Sonar schools nationally
Juniper LA	The average for Sonar schools in your local authority

The national and local authority figures come from anonymised teacher assessments for about a million pupils in Sonar schools. They are a snapshot, taken on the date Information gives, and no individual pupil or school data is shared.

Information explains each figure and gives the snapshot date.

Options

Option	What it does	Default
Assessment point list	Chooses the benchmarking point: autumn 2, spring 2 or summer 2, for the years your subscription covers	The latest point, such as 2025-2026 Summer 2
National, LA, All	Chooses the benchmark: Juniper National, Juniper LA or both	National
Tabs	Primary: Summary, Combined RWM, Reading, Writing and Mathematics. EYFS: Summary, then Tracking GLD and Tracking All Goals for each year group.	Summary

Read the primary report

The Summary tab has a card each for Combined RWM (reading, writing and maths), Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Each card gives the percentage of your pupils in years 1 to 6 judged at or above age-related expectations (ARE). The line under it, such as -% vs National Benchmark (-%), gives the difference from the benchmark and then the benchmark itself in brackets. Year Group Summary repeats them for each year group. A dash means there is no figure for that selection.

At summer 2 of the 2025 to 2026 academic year, 55.2% of the demo school’s pupils were at or above ARE in combined RWM. In Year Group Summary, the Year 4 row shows 90% in reading and maths, 50% in writing and 43.3% combined. No benchmark is available for the demo school, so each comparison shows dashes.

Dashes mean there is no benchmark for this selection.

Further down, Contextual Group Analysis, Ethnicity Analysis and Attendance Analysis cover groups of pupils. Their tables give your figure and its difference from each benchmark, coloured by the size of the gap:

Colour	Difference from the benchmark
Significantly Above green	10 or more percentage points above
Slightly Above light green	2.6 to 9.9 points above
Within yellow	Within 2.5 points either way
Slightly Below peach	2.6 to 9.9 points below
Significantly Below red	10 or more points below

On the cards, a difference above the benchmark shows in green (above) and one below it in red (below).

Read the EYFS report

The EYFS report has two measures. Tracking GLD is the share of children on track in all 12 goals that make up a good level of development (GLD). Tracking All Goals is the share on track in all 17 early learning goals (ELGs). The tabs show each measure for each year group, such as Reception: Tracking GLD.

Children can only reach GLD at the end of reception, so these measures show whether they are on track for it. Nursery year groups are included so that you can see shortfalls while there is still time to change support.

EYFS benchmarking needs judgements in all 17 ELGs, not only in the seven areas of learning. It does not show individual goals: for those, use the EYFS reports.

At summer 2 of the 2025 to 2026 academic year, the demo school’s Reception shows Tracking GLD at 39.3% and Tracking All Goals at 32.1%. Nursery 1 and Nursery 2 show dashes.

EYFS benchmarking follows GLD and all 17 goals.

How the percentages are calculated

Your school’s figure is the percentage of all the pupils in a year group judged at or above ARE. The benchmark is worked out the same way from every pupil in that year group across the schools in it. Because it pools pupils rather than averaging schools’ percentages, larger schools carry more weight.

The year group total includes pupils with no judgement, so a missing judgement lowers your figure. Juniper Education announces a data entry deadline for each benchmarking point in Sonar News on the Home page. Judgements entered by then go into the next benchmark, so check for gaps with the Summative Data Check Summary before the deadline.

Points to watch

The figures are teachers’ judgements, not test results, and schools do not moderate them against each other. A difference from the benchmark can reflect how schools judge as well as what pupils know.

The comparison is with schools that use Sonar, not with every school in England, and it is not the DfE’s national data. The number of Sonar schools also varies between local authorities, so the local authority benchmark may rest on only a few schools.

Your school’s figures are live and change as teachers enter judgements, but the benchmarks stay fixed at the snapshot date. Compare the two once your judgements for the point are complete.

Do not roll your management information system (MIS) over to the new academic year before 1 August. An earlier rollover affects your school’s data, including benchmarking. See The new academic year.

Good practice

Use benchmarking to decide which questions to ask, not to judge teachers or rank schools. The DfE’s 2018 report ‘Making data work’ warned against using teacher assessment to hold teachers to account unless it is moderated across schools.

Related pages

• Check data entry
• EYFS reports
• Statutory Dashboard
• Good assessment practice