Primary schools buck national blip in Sats results
By Bristol primary schools improved their league table scores in the last year, despite a national fall in the number of children achieving the best results.
More ten- and eleven-year-olds across the city achieved Level 4 results in their Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs), results released by the government confirm.
The survey by the Department for Children, Schools and Families shows that, in Bristol, the overall percentage of children achieving Level 4 or above, the target appropriate for their age, in English was 76% (up from 75% in 2008); in maths was 75% (up from 73% in 2008); and in science 85% (up from 82% in 2008).
Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Clare Campion-Smith, congratulated schools on their results, but said more progress needed to be made.
“Congratulations to all the children and their teachers who have worked hard to achieve these strong results,” she said. “Bristol primary schools are continuing to make progress in driving up standards.
“However, it is clear that we would like to see further progress to move up again next year. We have a strong team of headteachers in place and are working to ensure that our most successful schools share best practice with other schools across the city.”
The government’s target is to get 78% of primary school children reaching Level 4 in English and maths by 2011. And it emerged that, nationally, in 100 more schools than last year more than half of pupils failed to reach Level 4.
Overall, the percentage of children reaching Level 4 in English and maths is 72%, which led to the Liberal Democrats in Westminster saying the data indicated that standards “showed signs of slipping backwards”.
Schools Minister Diane Johnson said that while standards in English had slipped back, the overall picture was far healthier than when Labour came to power in 1997.
She added that children who only achieve Level 3 are not “lost”, and still have the ability to read Harry Potter books.
“It’s right to celebrate success,” she said. “Our rapid intervention in schools ten years ago dramatically improved results. About 100,000 more pupils now leave primary school secure in the basics compared to the mid nineties.
“At the same time, it’s also important to remember that while the majority of pupils meet the expected level, those who achieve Level 3 are not ‘lost’ children. They can add up, write stories and poems and read and enjoy books like Harry Potter.
“Today’s figures confirm a small dip in English this year, but results in this subject are still up from 63% in 1997 to 80% today, which means 98,000 more pupils are now reaching Level 4 or above in their English test.
“Parents, headteachers and governing bodies will be rightly concerned about this small dip, and so are we, but we’re confident that our early investment in schemes like Every Child a Reader, Every Child a Writer and the new pupil guarantee of one to one tuition for those falling behind will have a positive effect on standards in English in the coming years.”
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