National Curriculum Key Stage 2 assessments reveal increased attainment in primaries

English schools’ SATs results show continued progress

More pupils are leaving primary school with a good grounding in reading, writing and maths, with results released today showing that since 2010 around 90,000 children are better off in these subjects.

The 2015 performance tables also show that the number of schools below the floor standard has fallen by nearly 100 since last year – with 676 failing to meet the expected levels compared to 768 in 2014, when the floor standard was increased.

The other big point is that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and others continues to decrease, as it has in each of the last four years, narrowing by 1.6 per cent in 2015.

Results published today showed:
- 80 per cent of pupils achieved level 4 or above in all of reading, writing and maths – in 2010, 1 in 3 pupils did not achieve this level, compared to 1 in 5 today
- 94 per cent of pupils made at least 2 levels of progress in writing – an increase of 4 percentage points since the earliest comparable figures in 2012
- 91 per cent of pupils made at least 2 levels of progress in reading – an increase of 2 percentage points since the earliest comparable figures in 2012
- 90 per cent of pupils made at least 2 levels of progress in maths – an increase of 8 percentage points since 2010
- Attainment in the grammar, punctuation and spelling test increased from 76 per cent in 2014 to 80 per cent in 2015

Despite having some of the most disadvantaged boroughs in the country, London continues to be a trailblazer for excellence, with the lowest proportion of schools falling below the floor target. However, this success is not isolated to the south. Rutland in the East Midlands and Devon in the South West are in the top 10 areas for the number of primaries where 100 per cent of pupils achieve level 4 or above in the three Rs and make at least expected progress in each subject, while the North West and North East were second only to London in terms of proportion of schools above the floor.

Standards have also continued to improve in sponsored academies – most of which were typically previously underperforming schools. Those open for one academic year have seen results improve by 5 percentage points compared to 2014 – from 66 per cent to 71 per cent. While those open two years have seen results rise by 10 percentage points under the guidance of a sponsor.