More children across the country met the expected standard at the
end of primary school this summer in English and mathematics,
amid rising education standards in England, Minister for School
Standards announced today (Tuesday 10
July).
Figures published today show:
- 64 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in all of
reading, writing and mathematics at Key Stage 2 nationally. This
figure was 61 per cent in 2017;
- 75 per cent met the expected standard in reading, up 4
percentage points on last year;
- 78 per cent met the expected standard in writing. This figure
was 76 per cent in 2017;
- 76 per cent met the expected standard in mathematics, up on 1
percentage point on last year; and
- 78 per cent met the expected standard in grammar, punctuation
and spelling, up 1 percentage point on last year.
The new national curriculum and assessments have set a higher
standard in schools and today’s rising results show more pupils
are meeting that standard, thanks to the hard work of teachers
and pupils, and government reforms.
This year’s results are the third to be released following the
introduction of a more rigorous national curriculum assessments
in Summer 2016, bringing primary education in line with the best
in the world.
Standards are rising in primary schools. There are now 154,000
more six-year-olds on track to become fluent readers today than
in 2012, in 2017 the attainment gap between disadvantaged primary
pupils and their more affluent peers had narrowed by 10.5 per
cent since 2011, and England’s rise up the international PIRLS
rankings for literacy put the success of the government’s reforms
on a global scale.
School Standards Minister said:
A good primary education lays the foundations for success at
secondary school and beyond. That’s why we introduced a more
rigorous, knowledge-rich primary school curriculum – with an
emphasis on reading and fluency in arithmetic – to ensure every
child is helped to reach their potential from the moment they
start school.
Today’s results and the rising standards we are seeing in our
primary schools are the fruit of our reforms and a tribute to
the hard work and dedication of teachers across the country.
These reforms promise even more success in the years to come
and will help to improve education for every child, no matter
their background.
The government has invested in programmes to help raise standards
in our primary schools, including a £26 million network of
specialist English Hubs around the country to improve pupils’
literacy and £41 million to follow the same approach to teaching
maths as world leading countries through the Shanghai Mastery for
Maths programme. This is on top of wider changes to the primary
assessment system which will reduce unnecessary workload for
teachers so they can focus on what really matters in the
classroom.
Today’s figures build on the record 1.9 million more children now
in good or outstanding schools than in 2010. The government is
continuing to ensure all parents have a good school place on
their doorstep, with the recent announcement of £680million to create
40,000 more good school places in primary and secondary
schools. Since 2010, 825,000 new school places have been created,
with recent analysis showing 91 per cent of those in 2016-17 were
in good or outstanding schools
