The proportion of four and five-year-olds who are judged at a “good level of development” has risen for the fifth year in a row, new government statistics show.

In 2018, 71.5 per cent of pupils reached the Department for Education’s early years foundation stage profile benchmark at the end of reception compared with 70.7 per cent in 2017.

For girls the figure was 78.4 per cent compared to 65 per cent of boys. But the gender gap has reduced in each year since 2014 and fell from 13.7 percentage points in 2017 to 13.5 percentage points this year.

The statistics show that both girls and boys have improved since 2017, but boys have done so at a faster rate.

To reach a good level of development children must have reached the early learning goal in 12 of the 17 areas in which they are assessed.

These include being able to count to 20, read simple sentences and take turns when playing.

Earlier this year, the government announced new draft early learning goals including exploring patterns of numbers within numbers up to 10 - including evens and odds, singing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and saying a sound for each letter in the alphabet.

The draft goals are being piloted in schools this term before being refined and then going out to full consultation later.