Analysis: key stage two assessment results in England, 2017 (revised data)

​The Department for Education (DfE) has published revised data about attainment in the 2017 key stage 2 national curriculum assessment results for pupils in schools in England. There has been little change in the figures from the provisional data release in August but there has been additional data released on pupil characteristics. The full statistical release can be found here and the updated technical guidance can be found here.

Summary of key findings

Attainment and progress by pupil characteristics

Free School Meals (FSM)

• 43% of FSM pupils achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, compared to 64% of all other pupils (a difference of 22 percentage points).
• The attainment gap between FSM pupils and all other pupils has increased by one percentage point compared to 2016.

Disadvantaged Pupils

• In 2017, 48% of disadvantaged pupils reached the expected standard in all of reading, writing and mathematics compared to 67% of all other pupils, a difference of 20 percentage points.
• The gap in attainment at the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics has decreased slightly from 21 percentage points in 2016 to 20 percentage points in 2017.
• However, the gap at the higher standard between disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils had increased from 5 percentage points in 2016 to 7 percentage points in 2017.

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

• Of all reported characteristics, pupils with SEN have the largest attainment gap when compared to those without any identified SEN.
• In 2017, 18% of pupils with SEN reached the expected standard in all of reading, writing and mathematics, compared with 70% of pupils with no identified SEN.
• This highlights an attainment gap of 52 percentage points compared with 48 percentage points in 2016.

Ethnicity

• Attainment at the end of key stage 2 varies between different ethnic groups.
• Chinese pupils are the highest achieving group in 2017 as in the last few years. The percentage of Chinese pupils reaching the expected standard in all of reading, writing and mathematics is 77%, 16 percentage points above the national average.
• Pupils from a Black background are lowest attaining at 60% of pupils meeting the expected standard, just below the national average. However, attainment in this group has increased by 9 percentage points from 51% in 2016.

English as an Additional Language (EAL)

• The attainment gap between pupils whose first language is English and those whose first language is other than English remains the same as in 2016 (4 percentage points).
• In 2017, 58% of pupils whose first language is other than English reached the expected standard in all of reading, writing and mathematics compared with 62% of pupils whose first language is English.

The data has also been incorporated into the primary school performance tables for 2017 which show results from the key stage 2 tests (reading, grammar punctuation and spelling, mathematics), key stage 2 teacher assessments (English, reading, writing, mathematics, science) and key stage 1 to 2 pupil progress measures (reading, writing, mathematics).

First published 08 February 2018