Infant schools are more generous in their assessments of seven-year-olds than primary schools, according to analysis by FFT education datalab.

A pupil is likely to fare better in teacher assessments in infant school than primary school despite having the same test scaled score, according to a study of a sample of 2018 key stage 1 results.  

Infant schools were more likely than primaries to assess pupils who scored below the expected standard in tests as being at or above the expected standard in each of reading and maths.

“Similarly, infant schools in the sample were more likely to assess a pupil with the same scaled score as a pupil in an all-through primary school as working at greater depth than the expected standard,” the analysis adds.

It does not suggest why this might be the case. But previous datalab research has examined the difference between primary school and infant school KS1 assessments.

It suggested that primary teachers had been giving seven-year-olds artificially low assessment scores to put their schools’ overall performance in a better light on KS2 progress measures.

Today’s findings reported on the KS1 results of 2,400 schools that subscribe to Education Datalab’s early analysis of their KS1 results. The data included both teacher assessments and scaled scores from tests representing 100,000 pupils.