New Key Stage 2 data gives us the first real insight into learning post-pandemic and confirms that attainment has fallen with disadvantaged children hit hardest, says Tiffnie Harris. Will the government act?  

The widening gap

Details of Key Stage 2 results for 2021/22 were published in September, providing provisional attainment statistics for Key Stage 2 National Curriculum assessments. Headline statistics were published in July. It’s the first real insight we have had into how the pandemic affected learning as these SATs were taken without adaptations, unlike Key Stage 4 and 5 exams. 

The full data release can be viewed here tinyurl.com/49jmb6az and you can also read our media response to it at www.ascl.org.uk/KS2disadvantagegap 

Key headlines 

Alarmingly, yet not surprisingly, key headlines show a decrease in attainment across all areas except reading. 

• 59% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), down from 65% in 2019. 
• 7% of pupils attained the higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), down from 11% in 2019.
• 74% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, up from 73% in 2019. 
• 69% of pupils met the expected standard in writing, down from 78% in 2019. 
• 71% of pupils met the expected standard in maths, down from 79% in 2019. 

Impact on disadvantaged 

The most devastating statistic is the widening of the disadvantage gap index, up from 2.91 in 2019 to 3.21. 

The report also tells us that this index narrowed from 2011 to 2018 – the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils was becoming smaller and it stayed relatively stable between 2018 and 2019. It almost sounds as though the government is trying to present this previous data as a win. 

Yet it’s hardly a positive. Covid impact aside, we should recall the Education Policy Institute’s Education in England: Annual report 2019 (tinyurl.com/2x4y6n6z) – included in the opening to ASCL’s Blueprint for a Fairer Education System (www.ascl.org.uk/blueprint): “It will take over 500 years to close the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their non-disadvantaged peers.” Disadvantaged young people were 18 months behind at the end of secondary, the report added, and it estimated that the gap between the two groups would not close until 2581 – or in about 20 generations. 

Worryingly, the provisional attainment statistics for Key Stage 2 indicate that the gap index increase in 2022 is at its highest level since 2012. As the report says, it suggests that “disruption to learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils”. 

This information will inevitably have an impact on the delivery of education in the months and years ahead. More support is going to be needed, costing money that schools simply do not have. The following headlines from the KS2 data might also affect school leadership decisions as children arrive at secondary schools from primaries: 

• 54% of boys met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), down from 60% in 2019. 
• Girls continue to outperform boys in all subjects except maths at 63% – down from 70% in 2019. 
• The biggest attainment gap between boys and girls remains in writing. 
• In 2022, 18% of pupils with SEN reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), compared with 69% of pupils with no identified SEN. 
• Attainment fell in 2022 among pupils with a first language other than English in all subjects except reading. 

Government targets and expectations 

In March 2022, the White Paper Opportunity for All: Strong schools with great teachers for your child (tinyurl.com/mu69urnv) set out the following objective: 

“By 2030, 90% of children will leave primary school having achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, up from 65% in 2019. In the worst performing areas, the percentage of children meeting the expected standard will improve by a third. This White Paper adds to that goal, seeking to lift the attainment of all secondary pupils by setting an ambition to increase the national GCSE average grade in both English language and in maths from 4.5 in 2019 to 5 by 2030.” 

To question whether this can be achieved wastes time that we no longer have. The 2022 Key Stage 2 outcomes reinforce the need for the government to urgently prioritise education. This data is real – children and young people need help, and they need it right now. Primary The know zone The widening gap New Key Stage 2 data gives us the first real insight into learning post-pandemic and confirms that attainment has fallen with disadvantaged children hit hardest, says Tiffnie Harris. Will the government act? 

Tiffnie Harris 
ASCL Primary and Data Specialist 
@tiffnieharris

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