17th August 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
There has been an increase in the number of 11 year olds achieving the required standards in reading, writing and maths. Reported on the BBC, 67% of students left primary school this year having achieved level 4 in each of the three disciplines (the level they are expected to be at). This compares to 64% one year ago.
Taking each subject individually, 75% of students achieved level 4 in writing (up from 71% last year), 84% in reading (83% last year), and 80% in Maths (79% last year). However, the results were not good news for every student, and they showed that 10% of boys were only at a level 2 reading level upon leaving primary school (the level expected of a 7 year old), and this figure was 5% for girls. The government admitted that this isn’t good enough, and more needs to be done to help these struggling students.
More bad news came when examining over achieving students. The results of the SATs showed that the number of students reaching level 5 or higher in each of the three subjects was 13%, a fall from 14% in the 2010 figures. Although not necessarily significant, this drop adds weight to some teachers’ contention that the SAT tests promote teaching only to the required level and specifically for the tests, which ultimately hinders students who could be pushed further.
Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said that he was happy about the raise in standards, but that more can be done to help under-performing students, and to encourage those with the ability to exceed expectations. The report claims that the results endorse Lord Bew’s and the NUT’s opinion that teacher assessment is a better way to measure student achievements when leaving primary school, although the reasons behind this conclusion were not explained.