COUNTY education officers have created a pioneering project which will show how individual schools around Worcestershire are improving.

Members of Worcestershire County Council's education scrutiny panel have been told how the CD-Rom will work in schools.

The idea is part of the LEA's commitment to include "value-added" analysis when school league performance tables are published.

The aim of the CD is for schools to see their particular strengths and how much they have improved from previous years - rather than just their exam results.

The CD-Rom has been selected by the Department for Education and Employment to go on its website as an example of good practice.

All schools will receive a copy of the CD after attending a training course and signing up to a protocol to ensure the information is used properly. The details cannot be used as a marketing tool to compare schools.

"This disk is a valuable new tool to enable every school to improve its achievement," said Councillor Barbara Watton, chairman of the education scrutiny panel.

"It will be used when a school's inspector holds discussions with the headteacher on pupil performance.

"This constructive approach will hopefully put a stop to the naming and shaming of schools and end the blame culture that has demoralised our teachers."

Julien Kramer, director of educational services, said he was very excited about this development as there was now a professional tool to show parents, school staff, and governors, how a particular child was performing.

"Thanks to this new CD-Rom it will be much easier to paint a picture of an individual school and schools can now look at comparative information for the first time," he added.

Worcestershire LEA has also created a pupil-tracking database, which will enable officers to examine issues such as girls outperforming boys.

The database can also track the performance of certain groups, like children from ethnic minority group and traveller children.