Sonar Tracker

Overview

This article explains Primary Benchmarking Analysis, detailing its purpose, how to access it, the information it includes, and its controls. 

Purpose

Primary Benchmarking Analysis lets schools compare teacher assessment data with results from other schools using Sonar Tracker within their Local Authority (LA) and nationally. This helps school leaders understand how their school’s performance compares to wider benchmarks and provides external validation of attainment data.

Benchmarking calculations are based on anonymised, aggregated attainment data that is submitted by Sonar Tracker Schools (representing an average of around one million pupils). Your school’s results are compared against the average outcomes of Sonar Schools within your Local Authority and across the country, helping identify strengths and areas for improvement.

Benchmarking data is collected three times per year, allowing you to monitor performance regularly and use insights to inform planning and improvement strategies.

Primary Benchmarking Analysis compares performance across three levels:

1. School - Your school’s live results from the tracker, by subject and year group.
2. Local Authority - The average results for Sonar Tracker schools within your Local Authority.
3. National - The average results for all Sonar Tracker schools nationally.

The report includes benchmarking for Year 1 to Year 6 for Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Combined Reading, Writing and Mathematics (RWM).

Using Primary Benchmarking Analysis, you can:

1. Compare your school's performance against national Sonar Tracker benchmarks.
2. Compare your school's performance with Local Authority averages.
3. Analyse cohort performance in Combined RWM.
4. Analyse performance in individual subjects (Reading, Writing, Maths).
5. Examine the performance of key contextual groups, ethnic groups and attendance groups.

The benchmarking report supports strategic decision-making by helping you to:

1. Understand how key groups perform compared with other Sonar Tracker schools.
2. Identify attainment gaps and areas of underperformance.
3. Evaluate the impact of improvement strategies and interventions.
4. Monitor outcomes for disadvantaged pupils compared with non-disadvantaged pupils.
5. Validate your performance and drive continuous improvement.

Prerequisites

• You must subscribe to the Benchmarking module.

Opening the page

Select Benchmarking from menu, then select Primary. 

By default, you are presented with the National Summary view for the current Benchmark period.

Report View

Elements

Select to expand and find out more:

• Headlines

  Different headline figures are displayed on reports, depending on subject and benchmarks selected:

  

  1. Purple large values indicate the school's performance.

  2. Red minus percentages indicate underperformance compared to benchmark averages.

  3. Green positive percentages indicate better performance than the benchmark average.  

  4. Depending on National / LA / All Filters selected, a comparison to the Sonar National benchmark figure and LA (Local Authority) figure is displayed

  Field Name	Description
  Headlines - Combined RWM	This headline figure shows Whole School % At (and above) for Combined Reading Writing and Mathematics for the selected Benchmark Period.
  Headlines - Reading	This headline figure shows Whole School % At (and above) for Reading for the selected Benchmark Period.
  Headlines - Writing	This headline figure shows Whole School % At (and above) for Writing for the selected Benchmark Period.
  Headlines - Mathematics	This headline figure shows Whole School % At (and above) for Mathematics for the selected Benchmark Period.

• Year Group Summary

  This table is displayed when the Summary filter is selected:

  

  1. Purple large values indicate the individual Year Group's performance.

  2. Red minus percentages indicate underperformance compared to benchmark averages for the specific subject for the specific Year Group.

  3. Green positive percentages indicate better performance than the benchmark average for the specific subject for the specific Year Group.

  4. Depending on National / LA / All Filters selected, a comparison to the Sonar National benchmark figure and LA (Local Authority) figure is displayed for the specific subject for the specific Year Group.

  Field Name	Description
  Year Group	The specific Year Group that the benchmark figures relate to
  Combined RWM	This headline figure shows Year Group % At (and above) for Combined Reading Writing and Mathematics for the selected Benchmark Period.
  Reading	This headline figure shows Year Group % At (and above) for Reading for the selected Benchmark Period.
  Writing	This headline figure shows Year Group % At (and above) for Writing for the selected Benchmark Period.
  Mathematics	This headline figure shows Year Group % At (and above) for Mathematics for the selected Benchmark Period.

• Subject Performance Comparison Chart

  

  The subject comparison report shows a view of attainment across Combined RWM, Reading, Writing and Mathematics for all Year Groups, by Subject. 

  The Combined RWM National and Local Averages are shown for the school by default. Select a Subject to display subject specific averages for the school, rather than the default.

  Use the averages to compare Subject Performance of a Year Group to school, National and Local Authority averages to determine under- or over-performance, 

• Contextual Group Analysis (Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2)

  Split into Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, use this table to compare your school subject level performance with Juniper National and Juniper Local Authority data by contextual group:

  

  Comparison values are indicated using a colour scale:

  • Green (Significantly Above) - The Contextual Group for the specific Year Group is performing at least 10% above the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable) for that group.
  • Light green (Slightly Above) - The Contextual Group for the Year Group is performing 2.6% to 9.9% above the LA/National benchmark average for that group.
  • Yellow (Within) - The Contextual Group for the specific Year Group is performing at between 2.5% above to 2.5% below the LA/National benchmark average for that group.
  • Peach (Slightly Below) - The Contextual Group for the specific Year Group is performing between 2.6% to 9.9% below the LA/National benchmark average for that group.
  • Red (Significantly Below) - The Contextual Group for the specific Year Group is performing at least 10% below the LA/National benchmark average for that group.

  Field Name	Description
  Group	Contextual Group.
  Year	Year Group.
  Actual	The school's performance for the Contextual Group expressed as a percentage for those pupils who are At (and above) for the subject for the selected Benchmark Period.
  LA	LA represents the percentage difference between the school's performance and the Local Authority average for the contextual group within the Year Group, which can be positive or negative.
  National	National represents the percentage difference between the school's performance and the National average for the contextual group within the Year Group, which can be positive or negative.

• Ethnicity Analysis (Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2)

  Split into Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, use this table to compare your school subject level performance with Juniper National and Juniper Local Authority data by ethnicity group.

  

  Comparison values are indicated using a colour scale:

  • Green (Significantly Above) - The Ethnic Group for the specific Year Group is performing at least 10% above the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable) for that group.
  • Light green (Slightly Above) - The Ethnic Group for the specific Year Group is performing at between 2.6% to 9.9% above the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable) for that group.
  • Yellow (Within) - The Ethnic Group for the specific Year Group is performing at between 2.5% above to 2.5% below the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable) for that group.
  • Peach (Slightly Below) - The Ethnic Group for the specific Year Group is performing between 2.6% to 9.9% below the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable) for that group.
  • Red (Significantly Below) - The Ethnic Group for the specific Year Group is performing at least 10% below the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable) for that group.

  Field Name	Description
  Group	Ethnic Group.
  Year	Year Group.
  Actual	The school's performance for the Ethnic Group, expressed as a percentage for pupils who are At (and above) for the Subject for the selected Benchmark Period.
  LA	LA represents the percentage difference between the school's performance and the Local Authority average for the Ethnic Group within the Year Group, which can be positive or negative.
  National	National represents the percentage difference between the school's performance and the National average for the Ethnic Group within the Year Group, which can be positive or negative.

• Attendance Analysis (Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2)

  Split into Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, use this table to compare your school subject level performance by attendance band with comparative data from the Juniper National and Juniper Local Authority benchmarks for the same attendance band.

  

  Comparison values are indicated using a colour scale:

  • Green (Significantly Above) - Pupils in this attendance band are performing at least 10% above the comparable LA/National benchmark average (as applicable).
  • Light green (Slightly Above) - Pupils in this attendance band are performing between 2.6% to 9.9% above the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable).
  • Yellow (Within) - Pupils in this attendance band are performing at between 2.5% above to 2.5% below the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable).
  • Peach (Slightly Below) - Pupils in this attendance band are performing between 2.6% to 9.9% below the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable).
  • Red (Significantly Below) - Pupils in this attendance band are performing at least 10% below the LA/National benchmark average (as applicable).

  Field Name	Description
  Group	Attendance Group / band.
  Year	Year Group.
  Actual	The school's average performance for the pupils in the attendance band expressed as a percentage for those pupils who are At (and above) for the subject for the selected Benchmark Period.
  LA	LA represents the percentage difference between the school's average performance and the Local Authority average for the pupils within the attendance band within the Year Group, which can be positive or negative.
  National	National represents the percentage difference between the school's average performance and the National average for those pupils within the attendance band within the Year Group, which can be positive or negative.

• Year Group Performance Chart

  

  The subject comparison report shows a view of attainment across Combined RWM, Reading, Writing or Mathematics (based on selected Subject) for all Year Groups, by Year Group. 

  The Combined RWM National and Local Averages are shown for as an average of all Year Groups by default. Select a Year Group to display the year specific averages Nationally and at a Local Authority level along with the school average.

  Use the averages to compare Year Group performance for a subject against school, National, and Local Authority averages to identify under- or over-performance.

Controls

Benchmark Period	Select the Benchmark Period. By default, the latest Benchmark Period is displayed:   Your subscription determines the values listed. You can only see benchmarking data for the periods you subscribe to (you cannot see benchmark data from outside your subscription period).
National / LA / All Filters	Select one of the National, LA (Local Authority) or All (National and LA) filters to determine the data you want to display in the report: Your selection will change the level of data shown.
Summary / Subject Selector	Select the Summary / Subject that you want to view in the report. Select either Summary, Combined RWM, Reading, Writing or Mathematics.  Summary - top-level view of all school data.  Combined RWM - Combined Reading, Writing, and Mathematics view. Reading - Reading view. Writing - Writing view. Mathematics - Mathematics view.
Bars in Bar chart	Select a bar within a bar chart to highlight that set of values within the chart and display the National and LA averages (based on Filter selection) for the Year Group (individual subject displayed) or Subject (where Combined RWM is displayed), for example, the Reading values in the Summary Report across all year groups: Or the Year 3 National and Local Authority averages for Reading in this chart:
	Select to sort Contextual, Ethnicity and Attendance Group tables by the contents of a specific column in ascending / descending order. This is powerful if you want to identify your most at-risk groups based on how far away they are from the benchmark averages.
PDF	Select to create a PDF version of the report. When created, the report is automatically downloaded to your device. To view the report in PDF format, locate and open the PDF file using either the built-in download functionality in your web browser or the file management tools on your device:
Print	Select to print a copy of the report. When printing a report, select More settings and decrease / increase the Scale to resize the report so that it fits better onto each page:

Updated 17 March 2026 17:05