The disadvantage gap at primary school has increased to its widest level since 2012, new key stage 2 data reveals today.
In July provisional figures revealed that the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in all three areas of reading, writing and maths at age 11 was 59 per cent this year - below the 2019 figure of 65 per cent when Sats were last carried out.
New government data released today provides a breakdown by pupil characteristics, school type and region.
Sats 2022: What we can learn from the results
Here’s everything you need to know about the latest figures:
1. The widest disadvantage gap in 10 years
The disadvantage gap index rose to 3.21 in 2022, up from 2.91 in 2019. It is the highest figure since 2012, when the gap was 3.23. Since 2012 the gap had continued to shrink year on year.
The disadvantage gap index summarises the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils.
The Department for Education has suggested that this year’s figures show that “the disruption to learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils”.
The proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths fell to 43 per cent in 2022, compared with 51 per cent in 2019 - representing an 8 percentage point decrease.
The proportion of all other pupils reaching the expected standard this year was 65 per cent.
2. Girls continue to outperform boys
The proportion of girls achieving the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 63 per cent this year, down from 70 per cent in 2019.
Despite the decrease compared with 2019, girls remained ahead of boys, with 54 per cent of boys achieving the expected standard in all three subjects combined - a fall from 60 per cent in 2019.
Girls outperformed boys in all subjects in 2022 except for maths, where 72 per cent of boys achieved the expected standard, slightly more than girls (71 per cent).
3. Attainment of pupils with SEND falls for the first time since 2017
The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities who reached the expected standard in 2022 fell to 18 per cent from 22 per cent in 2019. The gap between all SEND pupils and pupils with no identified SEND narrowed slightly this year from 52 percentage points in 2019 to 51 percentage points in 2022.
4. The impact of missing Sats papers on the data
Alongside today’s release of data, the DfE issued a caveat regarding the “impact of missing results on data quality”, saying there had been “unexpected difficulties during the collection and processing of key stage 2 assessment data”.
The DfE admitted that this meant there were “larger volumes of missing data than in previous years”.
In July the DfE acknowledged that the volumes of available marked key stage 2 tests and teacher assessments were “lower than in 2019” but said they were still “sufficient” to produce national-level headline figures.
Today’s figures show the scale of the problem of missing Sats papers this year. They also show a disparity in the proportion of missing data between pupils in different groups
Tables show that 4.5 per cent of writing and science teacher assessments were missing for special school pupils, compared with a rate of 0.9 for other pupils.
Pupils with SEND had the highest rate of missing data out of all pupils in the maths test (at 0.3 per cent) and in the grammar, punctuation and spelling test (0.4 per cent).
In July one headteacher told Tes that all of their missing papers were specially adapted papers for dyslexic pupils.
5. The North West, North East and South East saw the biggest fall in attainment
The number of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined fell sharpest in the North West - with the proportion down 12.3 per cent on 2019. Some 57 per cent achieved the standard compared with 65 per cent in 2019.
The South East saw a similar decrease of 12.1 per cent, falling from 66 per cent in 2019 to 58 per cent in 2022.
And the North East saw an 11.9 per cent decrease, from 67 per cent in 2019 to 59 per cent in 2022.
London experienced the smallest percentage decrease (8.5 per cent), falling from 71 per cent in 2019 to 65 per cent in 2022.
6. Attainment fell across all school types, apart from free schools
Looking at the breakdown by school type, attainment fell across all settings apart from free schools, which saw a slight increase. There, 63 per cent of pupils achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with 62 per cent in 2019.
The proportion in local authority maintained schools fell from 66 per cent in 2019 to 60 per cent in 2022.
And the proportion in all academies and free schools fell from 65 per cent in 2019 to 59 per cent in 2022.
Commenting on today’s results, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said that the data showed a “wider attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils”, which was “expected”.
“It was recognised at the time that this would be the case, which is why an ambitious educational recovery plan was proposed, which the government refused to fund. The widened attainment gap we are now seeing is a result of that decision,” he said.
Mr Whiteman added that the government has “let down this cohort by not investing in their recovery” but said that it could “still act now”.
“Schools are currently under unprecedented financial pressure due to the cost of living, which is forcing cuts to teaching and support staff that directly impacts the most disadvantaged and high-needs pupils. The government cannot sit back and let this second massive blow to disadvantaged pupils hit, ” he said.
“In five years’ time these same students will be sitting their GCSEs. Only through proper investment in education can we expect to see an improved picture then.”
And Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the widening disadvantage gap showed ”the desperate need for more government funding for education”. “The government post-pandemic recovery programme has been chaotic and inadequate,” he added.
“But, in truth, lack of sufficient funding has been a feature of government policy for the last decade. Schools need to be able to afford the cost of providing children who need extra help with individualised and specialist support. However, the funding settlement is inadequate in general, and it is miserly for primary education.
“Without extra investment, there is not the remotest possibility of the government achieving its maths and English attainment targets.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said they knew the pandemic ”has had an impact on children’s learning, which is why our ambitious recovery plan continues to roll out across the country, with nearly £5 billion invested in high quality tutoring, world class training for teachers and early years practitioners and additional funding for schools to ensure”.
The spokesperson added that the national tutoring programme was “supporting children from all backgrounds” to catch up on lost learning and had delivered over 2 million courses so far.
“Although we are seeing children make encouraging progress, we recognise there is still more to do particularly for the most disadvantaged and in writing and maths.”
“Unlike GCSE and A level exams, we did not adapt the key stage 2 assessments for pupils in 2022, and the expected standards in the assessments have remained the same as in 2019. This data provides an important baseline, as we work towards our ambitious target of 90 per cent of children leaving primary school with the expected standards in reading, writing and maths by 2030.”
