DEPARTMENT FOR
CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES News Release (2007/0230) issued by
The Government News Network on 6 December 2007
More primary
school children than ever before are achieving the level expected
for their age in English, Maths and Science, as shown by the
Primary School Achievement and Attainment Tables published today.
But Ministers said more needed to be done to ensure no child was
left behind and that the forthcoming Children's Plan would
set out the next steps to build a world class education system.
The number of primary schools where fewer than 65 per cent of 11
year olds achieve the level expected for their age in English and
Maths has also fallen to its lowest level.
Nationally, the results show that:
* 80 per cent of 11 year olds achieved the target Level 4+ in
English, up 17 percentage points since 1997;
* 77 per cent achieved Level 4+ in Maths, up 15 percentage points
since 1997; and
* 88 per cent achieved Level 4+ in Science, a jump of 19
percentage points since 1997.
Schools Minister Andrew Adonis said:
"Tribute for today's record results must go to pupils
and teachers, standards in our primary schools have never been
higher. Compared to 1997, 100,000 more 11 year olds are mastering
the basics in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
"These results build on substantial and sustained
improvement at Key Stage 2 in the last 10 years, but we are far
from complacent and know there is more to do to ensure that every
pupil has the opportunity to reach their full potential and we
have a world class system everywhere. That is why it is right to
be ambitious for what individual pupils can achieve. No child
should be able to fall behind, and all children should leave
primary school having achieved everything they are capable of.
"We have set ourselves stretching national targets backed by
help from the Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts
programmes to support children who may be struggling with literacy
and numeracy. There will also be greater emphasis on phonics in
early reading teaching and in Maths, children will focus more on
mental arithmetic including learning times tables by age 8.
"But today we must celebrate the success our schools are
achieving. I congratulate the teachers and pupils at Orrets
Meadow School in Wirral, St Joseph's RC School in Oldham and
Gateway Primary school in Westminster - the top three schools
based on the new Key Stage 1-2 contextual value added measure.
Also congratulations to Furrow Community School in Rochdale which
tops the list for most sustained improvement in English, Maths and
Science from 2004-07."
The Primary School Achievement and Attainment Tables published
today show the latest figures for the primary school performance
in the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum tests in 2007.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1 The Government's floor target is to reduce by 40% by 2008
the number of schools where fewer than 65% of 11 year olds achieve
level 4+ in English and maths. The reduction in the number of
such schools since 2003 is 48% in English and 43% in maths.
2 A table of the top 100 schools using the contextual value added
measure is attached at Annex 2
3 A table of the top 100 schools showing sustained improvement in
aggregate of English, Maths and Science since 2003 is attached
Annex 1.
4 The Statistical First Release showing the Key Stage 2 (revised)
results for Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 contextual valued added
measure is available on DCSF website at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000764/index.shtml
5 Value added is a way of measuring the progress a pupil makes
between one stage of education and the next. The progress a
school helps pupils to make compared to their different starting
points allows comparison between schools with different pupil
intakes. Value Added (VA) measures, which have been published for
a number of years, take account of prior attainment and allow
meaningful comparisons to be made between schools with different
intakes, by taking into account the biggest single predictor of
Key Stage 2 pupil results (results at the end of Key Stage 1).
However, other factors outside a school's control, such as
gender, mobility and levels of deprivation have been observed to
have a further impact on pupil results even after allowing for
prior attainment. To take these into account requires a more
complex model of value added, which was developed and piloted last
year. This Contextual Value Added (CVA) model goes a step further
than the previous VA measures by taking into account a number of
factors outside a school's control and allows us to reflect
more realistically and therefore more fairly, the impact each
school makes considering the particular circumstances of its intake.
6 Today's figures give an update to the provisional Key
Stage 2 figures published in August. The number of pupils
achieving the higher Level 5 in English has increased by 1
percentage point to 34%. The proportion achieving level 5 in Maths
decreased by 1 percentage point to 32%. These changes are due to
the rounding convention used, rather than significant changes in
the data.
PUBLIC ENQUIRIES:0870 000 2288
info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
INTERNET ADDRESS :http://www.dcsf.gov.uk
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/findoutmore
If you would like to receive email notification of new press
notices in the subjects of your choice, please click on
'register' on our site:
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk,
'Latest News'.