Phonics screening check and key stage 1 assessments: England 2012
Provisional data on achievements of eligible pupils in the national curriculum assessments and phonics screening check and at key stage 1.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Reference Id: SFR21/2012
Publication Type: Statistical First Release
Publication data: Local Authority data
Local Authority data: LA data
Region: England
Release Date: 27 September 2012
Coverage status: Provisional
Publication Status: Published
This statistical first release (SFR) provides provisional information from the academic year 2011 to 2012 on the achievements of both eligible pupils in the phonics screening check and those pupils at the end of key stage 1 (KS1) in their national curriculum teacher assessments by level, gender, ethnicity, English as a first language, free school meal eligibility, special educational need and the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index. Breakdowns of achievement for disadvantaged pupils were added to both the Phonics and Key Stage 1 tables in December 2012.
In September 2011, the Government announced that a new statutory phonics screening check for all children in Year 1 would be introduced during the current academic year. The purpose of the check is to confirm whether each child has learnt phonic decoding to an age-appropriate standard. The check comprises a list of 40 words and a teacher known to the child is required to use their professional judgement about which responses are correct. The phonics screening check was administered during week commencing 18 June 2012.
The KS1 teacher assessments measure pupils’ attainment against the levels set by the National Curriculum. They measure the extent to which pupils have the specific knowledge, skills and understanding which the National Curriculum expects pupils to have mastered by the end of Key Stage 1. The National Curriculum standards have been designed so that by the end of KS1, pupils are expected to reach Level 2.
The figures contained within this publication combine the information gathered through the School Census in January 2012 and the 2012 phonics and Key Stage 1 achievement data. This release provides information at national and local authority (LA) level and includes attainment by pupil characteristics. Tables showing a breakdown of KS1 attainment by area of pupil residence are included in this release.
The key points from this release are:
- In the first year of the phonics screening check 58 per cent of pupils met the expected standard of phonic decoding ability. Girls outperformed boys with 62 per cent achieving the expected standard compared to 54 per cent of boys.
- The 2012 Key Stage 1 (KS1) Teacher Assessments show that the percentage of pupils achieving the expected level has increased in all five subjects assessed. The largest increases are seen in reading and writing where the percentage of pupils achieving the expected level has increased by two percentage points in both subjects. These increases are larger than those seen in previous years. The percentages of pupils achieving the expected level in speaking and listening, science and mathematics have improved by one percentage point.
- Girls continue to outperform boys in terms of the percentage of pupils reaching the expected level at KS1. The biggest differences are in reading and writing, with gaps of seven and 10 percentage points respectively. The gender gap has however narrowed in both reading and writing since 2011 by 1 percentage point.
Sally Marshall - National Pupil Database and Small Area Statistics team
01142 742 317