The proportion of primary school pupils who met the expected standard in reading in this year’s Sats exams has fallen, official statistics show.
The Key Stage 2 Sats results, which assess pupils’ attainment in literacy and maths by the end of Year 6 in schools in England, showed that 73% achieved the expected standard in reading, down from 75% in 2022.
It comes after parents and teachers complained that this year’s Sats reading paper was too difficult, with reports that some staff struggled to understand the questions and some children were reduced to tears.
On Tuesday, primary school heads reported issues with accessing their pupils’ Sats results through a Government website for the second year in a row.
Overall, 59% of pupils met the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths this year – the same as last year.
In 2019, 65% achieved the expected standard in all three areas.
The Government’s aim is for 90% of children to leave primary school having achieved the expected standards in reading, writing and maths by 2030.
The Department for Education (DfE) said this year’s cohort of Year 6 pupils experienced disruption to their learning during the pandemic – particularly at the end of Year 3 and in Year 4.
In individual subjects, scores were higher than last year, or the same, in all areas apart from reading.
In total, 73% of pupils met the expected standard in maths, up from 71% in 2022, while 71% met the expected standard in writing, up from 69% last year.
Meanwhile, 80% met the expected standard in science, up from 79% in 2022, while 72% met the expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling, unchanged from last year.
Primary school leaders struggled to access their Sats results on Tuesday.
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “It’s beyond belief that for the second successive year schools have had issues logging into the Primary Assessment Gateway system, which they use to access results.
“We were assured that changes had been made so there would not be a repeat this time around. However, from 7.30am this morning, many schools had similar problems as leaders tried to access their results before starting another busy school day.
“The Government has made SATs extremely high stakes for schools, so it should come as no surprise that demand to access the system on the morning results are released is high.
“School leaders are expected to get things right, adhering to deadlines for completing tasks and submitting data; the same expectations must be met by the Government.”
It’s #SATs results day!
Whatever the result, remember that a SATs score does not define children, or their future.
Share our film as a reminder. pic.twitter.com/YC8QX1tTUt
— More Than A Score (@MoreThanScore) July 11, 2023
A spokeswoman for campaign group More Than A Score said: “SATs fail all children. Throughout Year 6, pupils have spent too much time cramming for government tests which will never provide an accurate picture of all that they can do, or the overall performance of their school.
“For months, instead of enjoying a broad, rich curriculum, they focused on English and maths, only to then face a reading paper which was condemned by heads, teachers and parents for its inappropriateness and difficulty.”
