Attainment: expected standard

This year, the government changed the way that children are assessed. When looking at the data for 2016, it’s important to bear in mind the advice from the Department for Education: don’t compare 2016 with previous years:

Children sitting key stage 2 tests this year were the first to be taught and assessed under the new national curriculum. The expected standard has been raised and the accountability framework for schools has also changed. These changes mean that the expected standard this year is higher and not comparable with the expected standard used in previous year’s statistics. It would therefore be incorrect and misleading to make direct comparisons showing changes over time.

In 2016, 65% of our pupils achieved the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths, combined (compared with 53% nationally).

• Reading: 68% meeting expected standards (national: 66%)
• Writing: 81% meeting expected standards (national: 74%)
• Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling: 84% meeting expected standards (national: 72%)
• Maths: 84% meeting expected standards (national: 70%)

Scaled scores, where 100 is the expected national standard, also show that Moortown’s pupils fair well (there are no scaled scores available for Writing).

• 103 average scaled score in Reading
• 105 average scaled score in Maths
• 107 average scaled score in Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

Attainment: higher level

We continue to offer challenge to all children, including higher attaining pupils. Scaled scores of over 110 are considered ‘high scores’.

10% of our pupils achieved a high level of attainment in Reading, Writing and Maths, combined (the national proportion was half this: 5%).

• Reading: 29% high scores (national: 19%)
• Writing: 19% high scores (national: 15%)
• Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling: 42% high scores (national: 23%)
• Maths: 16% meeting expected standards (national: 17%)

Progress

The Department for Education measures progress from Key Stage 1 (KS1) to Key Stage 2 (KS2). Expected progress is zero, with anything above that being better than expected and negative numbers showing less than expected progress. Overall, we’re happy that Moortown’s progress remains better than many schools.

• 0.3 average progress in Reading
• 1.4 average progress in Writing
• 2.0 average progress in Maths

Reading is a little above the expected level. We’d like it to be higher. The Reading test was extremely hard this year – something widely reported and commented on in the media and social media. It also raises the importance of reading and discussing what is being read at home. Some of our children struggled for three main reasons:

• some children struggled to read the whole text – flagging up how important regular reading at home is to build up fluency.
• others struggled with how difficult the test was: hard texts to read (one was an extract from a newspaper, whose intended audience is adults, not 11 year olds!) – this flags up the importance of encouraging your child to read often, and to read a variety of texts, from fiction to non-fiction, comics to newspapers (but always prioritise reading for pleasure – far more important than a snapshot of reading skills that is the SATs test).
• third, the actual test questions were tough (testing children’s knowledge of quite tricky words and ability to infer ‘impressions’, a word used more than once in the test) – teachers always encourage parents and carers to be listening to their child read and talking about what is being read, even when a child is quite a fluent reader.

Attainment: Level 4 or higher

One measure which the Department for Education uses is the percentage of pupils attaining Level 4 (the broad, nationally-expected level for 11 year olds) or more by the end of Year 6 in Reading, Writing and Maths (ie all three). Since 2010, our performance has been consistently above 90%.

In 2015, 94% of our pupils attained Level 4 (or higher) in all three subjects, 14 percentage points higher than nationally (80%). Moortown pupils perform significantly higher in all subjects tested.

• Reading: Level 4+ 97% (national: 89%)
• Writing: Level 4+ 94% (national: 89%)
• Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling: Level 4+ 97% (national: 80%)
• Maths: Level 4+ 97% (national: 86%)

Attainment: Level 5 or higher

At Moortown Primary, we pride ourselves on making sure higher attaining pupils are provided with lots of challenge: all the data here can be regarded as significantly above national figures.

36% of our pupils attained Level 5 (or higher) in all three subjects, 12 percentage points higher than nationally (24%).

• Reading: Level 5+ 71% (national: 48%)
• Writing: Level 5+ 45% (national: 36%)
• Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling: Level 5+ 55% (national: 56%)
• Maths: Level 5+ 70% (national: 42%)

We’re very pleased with these results.

Progress

In 2015 and before, children were expected to make 2 levels progress between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. Moortown pupils all made the expected progress, with many making much more than that:

• Reading: 100% (91% nationally)
• Writing: 100% (94% nationally)
• Maths: 100% (90% nationally)

Attainment: Level 4 or higher

One measure which the Department for Education uses is the percentage of pupils attaining Level 4 (the broad, nationally-expected level for 11 year olds) or more by the end of Year 6 in Reading, Writing and Maths (ie all three). Since 2010, our performance has been consistently above 90%.

In 2014, 93% of our pupils attained Level 4 (or higher) in all three subjects, 14 percentage points higher than nationally (79%).

It’s also useful to think about the breakdown between the core subjects of Reading, Writing and Maths (also included is the assessment of Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling). Proportions attaining Level 4 or higher are:

• Reading: Level 4+ 100% (national: 89%)
• Writing: Level 4+ 93% (national: 85%)
• Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling: Level 4+ 97% (national: 76%)
• Maths: Level 4+ 100% (national: 86%)

Attainment: Level 5 or higher

Level 5 is a higher level (broadly speaking, most 14 year olds are expected to be working at around Level 5 or Level 6). At Moortown Primary, we pride ourselves on making sure higher attaining pupils are provided with lots of challenge: all the data here can be regarded as significantly above national figures.

57% of our pupils attained Level 5 (or higher) in all three subjects, 33 percentage points higher than nationally (24%).

• Reading: Level 5+ 80% (national: 49%)
• Writing: Level 5+ 70% and 7% at Level 6 (national: 33%)
• Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling: Level 5+ 83% and 13% at Level 6 (national: 52%)
• Maths: Level 5+ 70% and 17% at Level 6 (national: 42%)

We’re very pleased with these results. We’re also pleased to note that children entitled to the pupil premium attained higher in Reading, Writing and in Maths than all pupils nationally.  This is true for pupils at the end of Key Stage One (Year 2) as well as those at the end of Key Stage Two (Year 6).

Progress

Many people would argue that progress is the most important measure as it truly reflects the quality of teaching and learning, regardless of pupils’ starting points. Progress is typically measured from Year 2 (the end of Key Stage 1) to Year 6 (the end of Key Stage 2).

At Moortown Primary, 100% of pupils made at least the minimum expected progress of two levels in 2014:

• Reading: 100% (national: 91%)
• Writing: 100% (national: 93%)
• Maths: 100% (national: 89%)

Further, twice as many pupils than nationally at Moortown Primary achieved more than expected progress (three or more levels) in reading, writing and maths:

• Reading: 79% (national: 35%)
• Writing: 63% (national: 33%)
• Maths: 70% (national: 35%)