ewer feminine major faculty pupils met the anticipated normal in studying on this 12 months’s Sats exams than final 12 months, figures present.

The attainment hole between women and boys in studying at Key Stage 2 narrowed this 12 months, in accordance with the most recent Department for Education (DfE) statistics.

An in depth breakdown of the Key Stage 2 Sats outcomes, which assess pupils’ attainment in literacy and maths by the tip of Year 6 in faculties in England, means that the attainment hole between deprived pupils and their friends has narrowed barely – however it's nonetheless bigger than earlier than the pandemic.

Overall, 73% of Year 6 pupils in England achieved the anticipated normal in studying, down from 75% in 2022.

The newest check outcomes of 11-year-old pupils spotlight the stark inequalities that scar our schooling system within the publish pandemic period

Read More

Girls proceed to outperform boys, however the newest figures present that 76% of ladies met the anticipated normal in studying this 12 months, down from 80% final 12 months.

The proportion of boys assembly the anticipated normal in studying was unchanged at 70%.

It comes after mother and father and lecturers complained that this 12 months’s Sats studying paper was too troublesome, with reviews that some employees struggled to grasp the questions and a few kids had been diminished to tears.

Figures, launched in July, confirmed that 59% of pupils met the anticipated normal in all of studying, writing and maths this 12 months – the identical as final 12 months. In 2019, 65% achieved the anticipated normal in all three areas.

The Government’s goal is for 90% of youngsters to depart major faculty having achieved the anticipated requirements in studying, writing and maths by 2030.

The newest DfE knowledge means that the “disadvantage gap” has narrowed barely from 3.23 in 2022 to three.20 this 12 months.

Today’s knowledge nonetheless exhibits a large attainment hole between advantaged and deprived pupils

But the provisional knowledge doesn't but embrace some pupils within the care of a neighborhood authority, and as soon as they're added the DfE expects the hole to extend.

In 2019, the drawback hole in England was 2.91.

In 2022, the hole elevated to the best degree in a decade which the DfE mentioned prompt that the pandemic had a “greater impact on disadvantaged pupils”.

Niamh Sweeney, deputy basic secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), mentioned: “The disadvantage gap has been reduced by a mere 0.03 and remains significantly higher than in 2019 – evidence of this Government’s failure to meaningfully address child poverty and invest in our schools.”

Paul Whiteman, basic secretary of faculty leaders’ union the NAHT, mentioned: “Today’s data still shows a wide attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils.

“As the Government themselves suggest in their analysis, this is most likely a reflection of the impact of the pandemic, the impact of which was felt more greatly for disadvantaged families and children.

“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 attainment gap we are now seeing is, in part, a result of that decision, as well as more recent pressures such as the cost-of-living crisis.”

The statistics additionally present that London was the best performing area and the South West and the East of England had been the bottom performing areas.

The hole between the best and lowest performing areas remained unchanged at eight share factors.

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility on the University of Exeter, mentioned: “The latest test results of 11-year-old pupils highlight the stark inequalities that scar our education system in the post pandemic era.

“It is simply unacceptable that children from under-resourced backgrounds or happen to have hailed from outside London and the South East are increasingly likely to be failing to meet expected standards in England’s primary schools.”

A DfE spokesman mentioned: “Our mission is to make sure that every child has a world class start in life. It is great to see an increase in the proportion of disadvantaged pupils and those with SEN meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

“We have been relentlessly focused on closing the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, and we continue to fund our flagship National Tutoring Programme to help young people make up for time lost during the pandemic.

“We also continue to drive up standards as demonstrated by England coming fourth out of 43 countries that tested children of the same age in the PIRLS international survey of the reading ability of nine and 10-year-olds.”