Drop in primary pupils meeting ‘expected standard’ in Sats reading exam

Primary schools across the country received their pupils’ Sats results on Tuesday.

New figures show that the proportion of primary school pupils who met the expected standard in reading in this year’s Sats exams has fallen (PA) (PA Archive)

The proportion of primary school pupils who met the expected standard in reading in this year’s Sats exams has fallen, official statistics show.

The Key Stage 2 Sats results, which assess pupils’ attainment in literacy and maths by the end of Year 6 in schools in England, showed that 73% achieved the expected standard in reading, down from 75% in 2022.

It comes after parents and teachers complained that this year’s Sats reading paper was too difficult, with reports that some staff struggled to understand the questions and some children were reduced to tears.

On Tuesday, primary school heads reported issues with accessing their pupils’ Sats results through a Government website for the second year in a row.

Overall, 59% of pupils met the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths this year – the same as last year.

School leaders are expected to get things right, adhering to deadlines for completing tasks and submitting data; the same expectations must be met by the Government

Sarah Hannafin, NAHT

In 2019, 65% achieved the expected standard in all three areas.

The Government’s aim is for 90% of children to leave primary school having achieved the expected standards in reading, writing and maths by 2030.

The Department for Education (DfE) said this year’s cohort of Year 6 pupils experienced disruption to their learning during the pandemic – particularly at the end of Year 3 and in Year 4.

In individual subjects, scores were higher than last year, or the same, in all areas apart from reading.

In total, 73% of pupils met the expected standard in maths, up from 71% in 2022, while 71% met the expected standard in writing, up from 69% last year.

Meanwhile, 80% met the expected standard in science, up from 79% in 2022, while 72% met the expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling, unchanged from last year.

The government’s target of 90% of children achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths is a pipe-dream in these circumstances

Tiffnie Harris, the Association of School and College Leaders

Tiffnie Harris, primary specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “It is extremely difficult to raise standards when schools are struggling to put a qualified teacher in front of every class.

“Primary education is very poorly funded to the point where small schools are sometimes close to being financially unsustainable.

“The Government’s target of 90% of children achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths is a pipe-dream in these circumstances.”

Schools minister Nick Gibb said: “Whilst those meeting the expected standard in reading is down from 2022 from 75% to 73%, it remains higher compared to 2016 (66%) and is in line with pre-pandemic standards (73% met the expected standard in reading in 2019).”

Mr Gibb said England came fourth out of 43 countries that tested the reading levels of nine and 10-year-olds in the latest Progress in International Literacy Study (PIRLS).

He added: “Following the impact of the pandemic, it was expected that there may be lower levels of attainment while children caught up on lost learning.

“The progress that has been made in recovering from the pandemic is testament to the hard work of teachers and teaching assistants across the country.”

The DfE has said it will launch an updated Reading Framework to provide teachers and school leaders with evidence-informed guidance on good practice in reading in primary schools.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Our members raised significant concerns about the difficulty of the reading paper this year and the impact it had on children.

“The threshold for the expected standard is five marks lower than last year, and the lowest since 2017 – this is significant and clear recognition that this was a more challenging test for children.”

Mr Gibb asked the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) to assess the difficulty of this year’s reading Sats test following concerns.

Based on evidence gathered throughout the test development process, STA said the content of this year’s test was at the appropriate level of difficulty.

Primary school leaders also struggled to access their Sats results on Tuesday.

Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at the NAHT, said: “It’s beyond belief that for the second successive year schools have had issues logging into the Primary Assessment Gateway (PAG) system, which they use to access results.

“We were assured that changes had been made so there would not be a repeat this time around. However, from 7.30am this morning, many schools had similar problems as leaders tried to access their results before starting another busy school day.

“The Government has made SATs extremely high stakes for schools, so it should come as no surprise that demand to access the system on the morning results are released is high.

“School leaders are expected to get things right, adhering to deadlines for completing tasks and submitting data; the same expectations must be met by the Government.”

A spokeswoman for campaign group More Than A Score said: “SATs fail all children. Throughout Year 6, pupils have spent too much time cramming for government tests which will never provide an accurate picture of all that they can do, or the overall performance of their school.

“For months, instead of enjoying a broad, rich curriculum, they focused on English and maths, only to then face a reading paper which was condemned by heads, teachers and parents for its inappropriateness and difficulty.”

A Capita spokeswoman said: “The PAG system is operational, just busy, and we urge teachers to be patient.

“Between 7.30am, when the results became available, and 10.30am, we had 46,879 successful downloads from 13,238 schools.”