Someone sent me a headache inducing chart recently (I've blurred the schools): A data table and a chart - double the fun. The table is OK (ish) and is readable – but the graph. Genuinely I can’t get my head round what is going on.

One of my previous head teachers taught me a phrase – “Perception is reality” – used for many aims; to spur us on during Inspection, to praise when initiatives went well and to feedback when things went wrong. This is equally true for data. Certain…

Sometimes you see a chart on a website and can't help thinking about the motivation and thought process behind it. Take this, taken from a live school local authority web site: The colours haven't been adjusted - shades of yellow / orange representing something over the years…

I blogged this in 2014 and regularly use the data in my presentations about "data abuse" in schools. Sadly, little has changed since then. How times have changed. 10 years ago the debate about technology and the impact on our young people was split between…