I'm not making up this stuff to do with schools and 'data'

Comment from comments thread following my article in the Guardian on Tuesday:

"steve sanderson:

I had a visit from three DfE officials because my school was doing very well in challenging circumstances. When we were in Year 6 I explained to them that our results wouldn’t be as good this year as last because I had taken in three children who had been permanently excluded at other schools. They had missed 18 months of school so were unlikely to do as well as others in the class but were making rapid progress under an exceptional teacher.
The lead official then told me I had let the school down because our results and data would be a bit lower than the year before. It was typical of the DfE. Data before children. Those children were resolving their issues. We were working with Parents. That didn’t matter, it was only data that mattered."