SchoolDash: the school performance data tool for teachers, parents - and even estate agents

A new website from the founder of Digital Science aims to make it easier for a range of school stakeholders to sift through the huge amount of data about education performance across England

The problem with big data is that it's not always that easy to wade your way through it. The UK Department for Education, for example, provides a mammoth amount of information about schools - average class sizes, absence levels, details on how many pupils are eligible for free school meals (and how many are actually having them), and a wealth of measures that aim to assess how well children are performing across the school years. But trying to make sense of a sea of numbers in spreadsheets and tables doesn't always help you to get a sense of what's actually going on in schools around the country.

This is where Timo Hannay comes in. "About 18 months ago some local schools where I live in East Finchley asked for help in data analysis. Being the slightly obsessive geek I am, I ended up downloading reams of data from the DfE website and building a huge database covering every school in the country", he says. Hannay has an eye for data. He has a PhD in neuroplasticity, and for a number of years was the director of web publishing for Nature Publishing Group. He then went on to found Digital Science, a startup company focusing on software and services aimed at scientists and research administrators. Now, he can add educational cartographer to the list.