The Department for Education has today published more detailed data for attainment in key stage 2 Sats 2023, revealing achievement by disadvantage, region, gender and school type.
The data comes after provisional figures published in July revealed that the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in all three areas of reading, writing and maths at age 11 had remained unchanged from last year, showing no recovery to pre-Covid levels.
KS2 Sats 2023: insights from new data
1. The disadvantage gap narrows but is still higher than before Covid
Last year DfE data showed that the disadvantage gap at primary school had increased to its widest level since 2012.
In 2023 the “disadvantage gap index” fell slightly to 3.20, from 3.23 in 2022 - but it was still much higher than 2.91 in 2019.
The disadvantage gap index summarises the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils.
The proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths rose slightly to 44 per cent in 2023, compared with 43 per cent in 2022. It is still below the figure of 51 per cent in 2019.
The proportion of all other pupils reaching the expected standard this year was 66 per cent, the same as in 2022.
Attainment in reading fell this year compared with 2022 for both disadvantaged pupils and other pupils.
The proportion of disadvantaged pupils achieving the expected standard in reading fell from 62 per cent in 2022 to 60 per cent in 2023 . The figure dropped from 80 per cent to 78 per cent for pupils not known to be disadvantaged.
2. Girls still outperform boys in reading and writing
Girls continued to outperform boys in achieving the expected standard in reading and writing, but boys performed slightly better in maths (1 percentage point difference).
The proportion of girls achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 63 per cent this year, the same as in 2022 but still down from 70 per cent in 2019.
And 56 per cent of boys achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined this year, up from 55 per cent in 2022 but down from 60 per cent in 2019.
3. Attainment of pupils with SEND rises slightly
The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who reached the expected standard in all three subjects combined in 2023 rose by two percentage points compared with last year - from 18 per cent to 20 per cent.
However, this is still below the pre-pandemic figure of 22 per cent in 2019.
The gap between all SEND pupils and pupils with no identified SEND fell this year to 50 percentage points, as 70 per cent of pupils with no identified SEND reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined.
This figure compares with 52 percentage points in 2019 and 51 percentage points in 2022.
4. Attainment drops slightly in London
The only region where attainment fell this year was London, where the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths fell from 60 per cent in 2022 to 59 per cent in 2023.
Attainment rose from 57 per cent to 58 per cent year on year in the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Meanwhile, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined in the North West remained unchanged from 57 per cent last year, the same as in the East of England.
And in the South East, 59 per cent of pupils once again achieved the expected standard in all three subjects combined (no change from last year).
5. Free schools see biggest rise in outcomes
In free schools, 64 per cent of pupils achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, the same as in 2022 and up from 62 per cent in 2019.
The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined in local authority maintained schools fell from 66 per cent in 2019 to 60 per cent in 2022 and remained the same in 2023.
And the proportion achieving the expected standard in all three subjects in all academies and free schools rose slightly this year to 60 per cent from 59 per cent in 2022, but was still down on 65 per cent in 2019.
Commenting on the data, Louis Hodge, associate director for school system and performance at the Education Policy Institute (EPI), said that overall attainment had “stagnated” and “some of the country’s most vulnerable children continue to be considerably behind their peers.”
He said: “According to the government’s own data, the disadvantage gap has closed slightly since last year, but it is still around the same level as it was in 2012.”
This showed the “lasting impacts” the pandemic has had on younger cohorts of primary-school pupils, he warned.
