Provisional results of the primary school key stage 2 SATs tests broken down at local authority and regional level have been released by the Department for Education this morning.
Here are the main points from today’s new data.
1. Reading results saw the greatest improvement
In reading, 75 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in 2018, up four percentage points from 2017. However, this subject still had the lowest proportion of pupils meeting the standard.
In maths, 76 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard, up by one percentage point and in grammar, punctuation and spelling the figure was 78 per cent, up by one percentage point on last year again.
2. Performance at academies and LA-maintained schools was similar again
Academies and free schools performed similarly to local authority-maintained schools this year, with LA schools again coming out on top by just one percentage point.
In LA-maintained schools 65 per cent reached the expected standard in reading writing an maths, compared with 64 per cent in academies and free schools. Ten per cent reached the higher standard in both types of schools.
Maintained schools beat academies by two percentage points in reading and grammar, punctuation and spelling, and by one percentage point in maths, while writing results were the same.
Converter academies – those rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted at the time they converted – had the highest percentage of pupils achieving the expected standard again overall, at 67 per cent.
3. London continues to come out on top
Inner and outer London were the highest-achieving regions in England, with 70 per cent and 68 per cent of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined respectively.
The regions with lowest attainment were Yorkshire and the Humber, the east midlands, west midlands, and the east of England, all of which had 62 per cent of pupils achieving the expected standard.
The relative attainment in the regions was broadly consistent with last year, but attainment overall increased.
The top five performing local authorities across all subject were Richmond upon Thames, Trafford, Kensington and Chelsea, Sutton and Hammersmith and Fulham. At the other end of the spectrum were Peterborough, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Dudley and Luton.
Richmond upon Thames was the local authority with the highest proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading at 87 per cent, maths at 88 per cent, and grammar, punctuation and spelling at 89 per cent.
The weakest area for reading was Peterborough where 65 per cent of pupils achieved the expected standard.
For grammar, punctuation and spelling, Norfolk, the Isle of Wight and Peterborough were tied at the bottom with 70 per cent of pupils achieving the standard in all three.
The Isle of Wight and Peterborough came last in maths too, with only 66 per cent of pupils meeting the expected standard in each.
4. No change to the gender gap
Both genders improved their performance by three percentage points this year, and girls continue to outperform boys.
In reading, writing and maths, 68 per cent of girls and 60 per cent of boys reached the expected standard, a gap of eight percentage points.
Reading yielded the lowest results for boys, with 71 per cent reaching the expected standard, compared with 79 per cent of girls.
Maths had the smallest gap, with 76 per cent of girls reaching the expected standard, compared with 75 per cent of boys.
In grammar, punctuation and spelling, 82 per cent of girls and 73 per cent of boys reached the expected standard, but writing saw the greatest gap with 84 per cent of girls meeting the standard, compared with 72 per cent of boys.
To meet the government’s “expected” standard, pupils have to achieve 100 in their scaled scores.
Scaled scores are different for each subject, and can change each year.
The marks required for 2018 on each of the key stage 2 SATs tests are:
– Maths: 61 out of 110 (up from 57 in 2017)
– Reading: 28 out of 50 (up from 26 in 2017)
– Grammar, punctuation and spelling: 38 out of 70 (up from 36 in 2016)
In July, Schools Week reported on the interim results for the key stage 2 SATs published by the government, which showed thst 64 per cent of pupils achieved the government’s “expected standard” in reading, writing and maths, up from 61 per cent in 2017.
This was confirmed in today release. In 2017, 61 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard, up from 53 per cent in 2016.
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