Key DfE messages from 2017 KS2 Primary Tests

The DfE have released their latest analysis of the provisional data about attainment in the 2017 key stage 2 national curriculum assessment results for pupils in schools in England. this includes data sets at national, regional and local authority level.

Information from the report is detailed below – do visit the document for a more detailed analysis.

Data shows that in 2017, 61% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics an increase of 8 percentage points  from 53% in 2016 and that attainment has increased across all subjects.

Attainment has increased for both genders but girls continue to outperform boys. The gender gap at the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics remains at 8pp (as in 2016).
The biggest gender gap is in writing where girls outperform boys by 12pp while the smallest gap is in mathematics (1pp).
At the higher score, girls outperform boys in all subjects except in mathematics where boys outperform girls by 3pp.

Attainment levels in mainstream academies and free schools as a group are very similar to those in local authority maintained mainstream schools.

There is considerable variation between local authorities in attainment. The difference between the lowest and highest performing local authorities is greater in reading than in other subjects. In writing teacher assessment, the difference between the highest and lowest performing local authorities is smaller than in the test subjects. Across all subjects, the gap between the highest and lowest attaining LAs is smaller in 2017 than in 2016.

The highest performing local authorities are concentrated in London. The poorest performing areas are in the West Midlands, East of England, Yorkshire & the Humber, and the South East.