3rd October 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
National results of new English and Maths tests have been released which show that more 11 year olds are reaching the levels expected than in previous years. However, one in four students are still not making the grades desired for the English SAT test. 76% of students attained the expected level in reading, writing and maths tests which are taken at age 11, which is a 1% improvement on last year’s results. The new test in spelling, punctuation and grammar introduced this year yielded results of 74% of student attaining the expected level 4 in the exam. The results of the reading test showed that 86% of students achieved level 4, down slightly from last year, whilst in writing and maths students performed slightly better than in previous years.
The department for education praised students and schools for the results, saying that they showed that the majority of students are performing well at this level. They also noted that one in four students are still leaving primary school without a secure knowledge of spelling, punctuation and grammar, and urged schools to do more to address this issue. The new test introduced this year tests these aspects of English language, and is designed to encourage schools to address these issues. The introduction of the test has been controversial, with many teachers and academic commenting that the test is too narrow, and leads to students feeling like they are failures at an early stage of their education.
The test asks students to insert missing punctuation into sentences, including ascertaining where full stops, capital letters and commas are missing. They are also asked to identify parts of speech in sentences, including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The final element of the paper tests spelling, and words given students include “surprised”, “substantial” and “physically”. The number of students failing to reach the expected level four came to 139,000, with boys being significantly more likely to struggle with the test than girls. The department for education has said that schools need to focus more on these elements with their students to ensure that the majority of students reach level 4 by the time they are 11 years old.