Question Level Analysis

What do you find in a DAISI QLA?

Often called a “magic bullet”, QLA doesn’t just show you scores — it reveals the why behind them. By breaking data down into topics and cohorts, it uncovers powerful patterns and trends you simply won’t see from raw answers alone.

Whether you opt for full-subject coverage (like our KS2 SATs Results or Mock Past Paper Analysis) or individual reports (Maths Assessments), our reports do the heavy lifting: clear statements, powerful graphs, and intuitive charts that show exactly why results look the way they do — and where to act next.

With a full order, you will receive…

Comprehensive Overview | Forensic Subject Reports | Individual Pupil Profiles

Comprehensive Overview

Our analysis supports school leaders in taking a strategic, whole-school view —starting with headline outcomes such as how many pupils are meeting or approaching expected standards in Maths, Reading, and GPaS. From there, we delve deeper into the key topic strands within each subject, helping to uncover patterns, strengths, and areas requiring targeted support.

This layered approach enables schools to do more than just track attainment—it empowers leaders and teachers to make informed decisions about teaching, learning, and intervention. By identifying specific gaps in knowledge and skills, schools can develop precise next steps for pupils, adapt classroom planning, and refine curriculum delivery.

“I have just downloaded the Question Level Analysis. It’s BRILLIANT!!!! Really helpful! You have just saved me 15 fifteen hours of work. Thank you so much!”

Headteacher, Holy Trinity CE Junior School, Ripon

Forensic Subject Reports

Our subject-specific analysis offers a deep dive into performance across Maths, Reading, and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPaS), helping schools uncover meaningful insights beyond the overall scores. This detailed examination enables teachers to tailor instruction, plan interventions, and track progress with precision—ensuring every pupil receives the support they need to succeed.

Deep Dive into each Subject with meaningful Insight by Summary , Topic , Question, and Cohort.

Summary

We always start with an overall view of assessment results (e.g., pass rates) and important topic strands to see how the school is performing. This helps produce clear next steps for pupils.

This analysis provides a clear starting point, focusing on key headlines and areas for deeper analysis.

“Thank you ever so much for the QLA reports & the subsequent updates. The service we have received from yourselves & the attention to detail have been fantastic. We have found the reports to be incredibly useful & they are helping us to shape our school improvement priorities for the coming year.”

Headteacher, Holy Trinity CE Junior School, Ripon

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QLA Home | Summary | Topic | Question | Pupil | Cohort | Maths Assessments

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Topic Insight

Question Level Analysis looking at topics or cohorts rather than individual answers. This aggregation allows you to see patterns emerging which can be the drivers to implement change.

Our Topic Insight enables teachers to create tailored lesson plans to address learning gaps on certain areas from the start of the year.

This page shows strengths and weaknesses for all pupils, comparing boys and girls, the entire year, and national averages. For example:

• Girls excelled in ‘Ratio and proportion,’ while boys did not.
• Boys performed well in the first four topics, whereas girls did not.

This analysis allows you to look at your subject as a whole to see what teaching could be improved and implement targeted interventions for groups that need additional support.

“I think they are a great tool and really help us to analyse our data in great detail. I have been telling everyone how good they are & how they have saved hours of work. This has allowed me to focus on how we can improve teaching and learning rather than spending time on the data analysis – a very welcome change.”

Headteacher, Captain Cook Primary School, Middlesbrough (James Cook Learning Trust)

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QLA Home | Summary | Topic | Question | Pupil | Cohort | Maths Assessments

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Question Analysis

This analysis has been designed to help teachers identify questions that pupils found difficult or easier than average. For example, 8827 divided by 97 might be a common problem, highlighting issues with approximation.

It also shows areas where pupils outperform national averages, which can be extended for advanced students or allow time to focus on other topics.

This analysis can be used as evidence to update your curriculum to include more practice and instruction in areas where pupils struggle or indeed more advanced topics for areas where pupils excel.

“These reports are so thorough and useful. Subject leaders and Raising Standards Leaders in each primary school are going to be able to use this information to inform teaching and learning opportunities , not just in Year 6, but across the school. Some of the graphs used were new to me – it’s always good to be challenged by  information presented in a different way!“

Headteacher, Ravensthorpe Primary School (Peterborough Keys Trust)

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QLA Home | Summary | Topic | Question | Pupil | Cohort | Maths Assessments

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Cohort Breakdown

For a full analysis of your results, you will need to look more than at your school overall or the overall score per pupil. By looking in detail at your various cohorts, you can see a more collective and forensic picture emerging. This is where the true power of QLA to change your school lies. 

We break the results down in your various cohorts – gender, disadvantaged, SEN, EAL and prior attainment. This analysis is very powerful when looking back to find areas for school improvement.

For example, maybe when you look at your girls, you find that fractions are currently a problem, as evidenced by the results of certain questions compared with the National Average, and compared with your boys’ answers to the same question.

This analysis helps you focus on different cohorts within your year group and address areas in need. Small changes to specific cohorts can significantly improve school results. When these changes are embedded in school improvement planning, they can make a substantial difference.

“We struggled historically with reading results at the end of KS2 and have used DAISI QLA to drill down into the reasons why reading was significantly lower than maths. Using QLA we found that the issues were EAL pupils struggling with vocabulary -we introduced word of the week, then realising we needed more, word of the day. We also put on additional pre teaching sessions with an EAL teacher. We also identified that inference was a massive problem and we made it our whole school target, had loads of CPD and this made a massive difference.

In 2016, our reading EXP was 54%. In 2017, it was 68% and in 2018, it was 79%. All down to QLA.“

Deputy Headteacher, Seely Primary & Nursery School, Nottingham

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QLA Home | Summary | Topic | Question | Pupil | Cohort | Maths Assessments

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Individual Pupil Profiles

When preparing for exams, our Individual Pupil Profiles are the most powerful aspect of our QLA. Very simply and clearly, you can see each pupil’s strengths and challenges and be able to work with them to change this. By breaking down a test result into different areas, it enables the pupil to focus on these topics knowing the overall improvement will come.

For example, Jane might be doing 12% better than the National Average for Punctuation, but is doing 13% below for Grammatical terms and word classes. With that knowledge, you might want to investigate why that is the case.

You can use the profiles to pinpoint specific challenges each pupil faces – providing additional resources or one-on-one tutoring – or indeed Incorporate activities that leverage pupils’ strengths to boost confidence and engagement.

This analysis is perfect for tutors and individual teaching assistants as they focus on the areas to aid catch-up or bespoke intervention.

“In regards to the QLA as we have such a large cohort – it is good to look for areas/types of questions where children have struggled and we need to focus on further in the future. The QLA for each individual child is useful when looking at specific children within groups SEN, FSM, PP looking particularly at their individual progress in each subject.”

Headteacher, Fernwood Primary School, Nottingham

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QLA Home | Summary | Topic | Question | Pupil | Cohort | Maths Assessments

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DAISI Education

Thank you for reading this article.

At DAISI Education, we believe every school—regardless of size or budget—deserves access to powerful improvement tools. Using raw DfE data, we’ve built tools that give schools immediate, meaningful insight — revealing patterns by topic, cohort, and more. Our reports do the heavy lifting: clear statements, powerful graphs, and intuitive charts that show exactly why results look the way they do — and where to act next.

For over 12 years, schools have trusted QLA Results (KS2 SATS) with QLA Transition (Secondary) and QLA Mock SATs added to support progress. And the impact is proven: 80% of schools who used our Question Level Analysis consistently saw increased attainment. In 2019, we were proud to be recognised as a World Class Supplier by the World Class Schools Network for our outstanding work in supporting school improvement across the UK.

For more information – visit www.daisi.education | Find other Blog articles by clicking here