TEACHERS and staff of schools in Wales could be forgiven for heaving a weary sigh when they learned of the new banding system, the results of which we are publishing today.

For they have seen systems come and go with alarming regularity over the past few years.

We had league tables, then we didn’t; then there was a banding system, which was unpopular to start with and which ended up so controversial, it had to go.

Now, we have had the publication of the first colour-coded banding scheme in Wales.

Every school in Wales is now placed into one of four colour-coded groups as part of a system designed to improve performance.

The problem is that with such systems, the complexity of the decision-making process leading to a school being placed in a particular banding is not, and can never be, captured in the publication of a list.

Inevitably, the message taken away is that one school is labelled as being better than another, which may at best be too simplistic and at worst, not strictly true.

More important is what happens to those schools that have been placed in the ‘in need of immediate improvement’ red band.

The measure of the success or otherwise of this system will be seen next year when the onus will be on the Assembly to ensure the banding has resulted in improvements.