This section looks at key stage 2 attainment by gender, disadvantage, special educational need (SEN) status, first language and ethnicity.
Note that the statistics on disadvantage in this publication are provisional and do not include pupils in the care of the local authority for a day or more in the last year unless they were eligible for free school meals during the last 6 years, or they have ceased to be looked after in the last year. See the section on Disadvantaged Pupils below for further information.
Attainment by gender
Attainment at the expected standard
Girls continue to outperform boys at the expected standard in all subjects in 2023, except for maths where boys performed slightly better (1 percentage point difference). In reading, 76% of girls met the expected standard down from 80% in 2022, whilst 70% of boys met the expected standard, unchanged from 2022.
The biggest attainment gap between boys and girls remains in the writing teacher assessment at 13 percentage points.
In reading, writing and maths (combined) in 2023, 63% of girls met the expected standard compared to 56% of boys, a gap of 7 percentage points, down from 9 percentage points in 2022. This slight narrowing of the gender gap is due to an increase in attainment in reading, writing maths (combined) for boys, and a slight decrease in attainment in this combined measure for girls.
Attainment at the higher standard
Among individual subjects at the higher standard, the gender gap has fallen in reading from 10 percentage points in 2022 to 5 percentage points in 2023. This is due to boys attainment increasing by 4 percentage points, whilst girls attainment fell by 2 percentage points. In maths, the gender gap increased from 5 percentage points in 2022 to 6 percentage points in 2023. This is due to boys attainment in maths at the higher standard increasing by 2 percentage points, whilst girls attainment at the higher standard remained stable.
In 2023, 9% of girls achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), unchanged 2022 but down from 13% in 2019. Among boys, 7% achieved the higher standard, up from 6% in 2022 but down from 9% in 2019. This means in 2023, there is a gender gap of 2 percentage points at the higher standard, down from 3 percentage points in 2022.
Disadvantage gap index
The disadvantage gap index summarises the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils.
The gap index is more resilient to changes to assessment than attainment threshold measures and therefore offers greater comparability between years. The index ranks all pupils in the country. A disadvantage gap of zero would indicate that there is no difference between the average performance of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. We measure whether the disadvantage gap is getting larger or smaller over time. See the methodology for further information.
The disadvantage gap index has reduced from 3.23 in 2022 to 3.20 in 2023. However, the statistics about disadvantage in this publication are provisional and do not yet include pupils in the care of a local authority unless they were eligible for free school meals during the last 6 years or ceased to be looked-after in the last year. These pupils will be included in revised disadvantage statistics in December. We expect this to have a small impact on the disadvantage gap index (an increase of around 0.02 between provisional and revised in the gap index in recent years).
Before the pandemic, the disadvantage gap index had reduced between 2011 and 2018 - indicating that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers was becoming smaller - before remaining at a similar level between 2018 and 2019. The index increased in 2022 to the highest level since 2012, suggesting that disruption to learning during the COVID-19 pandemic had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils.
Attainment by disadvantage status
In 2023, 30% of pupils at the end of key stage 2 were considered disadvantaged.
Attainment at the expected standard
Attainment in reading has fallen compared to 2022 for both disadvantaged pupils and other pupils. Attainment at the expected standard fell from 62% in 2022 to 60% in 2023 for disadvantaged pupils and from 80% to 78% for other pupils. Attainment had increased from 2019 to 2022 for other pupils, whilst it has now decreased back to 2019 levels. For the disadvantaged group, attainment had remained the same between 2019 and 2022, and has fallen in 2023.
Attainment in writing and maths has increased for both groups since 2022. In writing, attainment rose from 55% to 58% for disadvantaged pupils and from 75% to 77% for other pupils. In maths, attainment rose from 56% to 59% for disadvantaged pupils and from 78% to 79% for other pupils.
The disadvantage gap in 2023 is similar across subjects, ranging from 18 percentage points in reading and science to 20 percentage points in maths.
In reading, writing and maths (combined), 44% of disadvantaged pupils met the expected standard in 2023 compared to 66% of other pupils, a difference of 22 percentage points. This is a decrease from 23 percentage points in 2022.
Attainment at the higher standard
In 2023, 3% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), unchanged from 2022 and down from 5% in 2019. Among other pupils, 10% achieved the higher standard, up from 9% in 2022 and down from 13% in 2019. This means that the attainment gap at the higher standard has slightly increased, from 6 percentage points in 2022 to 7 percentage points in 2023.
Definition of disadvantage
Disadvantaged pupils are ordinarily defined as: those who were registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, children looked after by a local authority or have left local authority care in England and Wales through adoption, a special guardianship order, a residence order or a child arrangements order.
As noted above, the statistics about disadvantage in this publication are provisional and do not include pupils in the care of a local authority unless they were also eligible for free school meals during the last 6 years or ceased to be looked-after in the last year. These pupils will be included in revised disadvantage statistics in December. We expect this to have only a marginal impact on the statistics, which are expected to change by less than half a percentage point.
Attainment by Special Educational Need (SEN) status
In 2023, 20% of pupils at the end of key stage 2 had a special educational need (SEN). Pupils with SEN either have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or receive SEN support. In 2023, 5% of all pupils had an EHCP and 16% were on SEN support.
In 2023, 20% of pupils with SEN met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), compared with 18% of pupils with SEN in 2022. Of those pupils on SEN support, 24% met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), whilst 8% of those pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan met the standard.
Attainment by first language
In 2023, 22% of pupils at the end of key stage 2 had a first language other than English.
Attainment of the expected standard
Attainment in reading has fallen since 2022 for both pupils with English and a language other than English as their first language at the expected standard. Attainment for pupils with English as their first language fell from 75% in 2022 to 74% in 2023. Before the pandemic in 2019, this figure was also 74%. For pupils with a first language other than English attainment fell from 73% in 2022 to 69% in 2023. This figure was 70% in 2019. The gap in reading attainment between pupils with English as a first language and a first language other than English is now at 6 percentage points.
Reading attainment at the expected standard increased among boys with English as their first language from 70% in 2022 to 71% in 2023. Reading attainment decreased for boys with a first language other than English, from 68% in 2022 to 67% in 2023. Reading attainment fell for girls in both groups, with 77% of girls with English as a first language meeting the expected standard (81% in 2022) and 72% of girls with a first language other than English meeting the expected standard (78% in 2022).
In both writing and maths, attainment has increased for both groups since 2022. In writing, attainment increased from 70% to 72% among pupils with English as their first language and from 70% to 71% among pupils with a first language other than English. In maths, attainment increased from 71% to 72% among pupils with a first language other than English and from 75% to 77% among pupils with English as their first language. Attainment for both groups in writing and maths remains below pre-pandemic levels.
The attainment of pupils with a first language other than English at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined) is greater than that of pupils with a first language of English for the second year in a row. In 2023, 60% of pupils with first language other than English achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), down from 61% in 2022 and from 64% in 2019. Among pupils with English as their first language, 59% achieved the expected standard, up from 58% in 2022 but below 2019 attainment (65%).
Attainment of the higher standard
In 2023, 9% of pupils with a first language other than English achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), up from 8% in 2022 but down from 11% in 2019. Among pupils with English as their first language, 8% achieved the higher standard in 2023, up from 7% in 2022 but below 2019 attainment (11%).
Attainment by ethnicity
Attainment at the end of key stage 2 varies by ethnicity.
As in 2022, Indian pupils are the highest performing group in all of reading, writing and maths (73% of pupils met the expected standard). The second highest performing group is White and Asian pupils (70%), a change from 2022 when this was Chinese pupils, who were the third highest performing group in 2023 (69%).
Gypsy/Roma pupils are the lowest performing group (18% met the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths), followed by Traveller of Irish heritage pupils (21%).
Following feedback from users, the Office for National Statistics updated their guidelines on ethnic groups. We have therefore included Chinese pupils in the Asian ethnic group in this publication since 2022. This was a change from previous years when Chinese pupils were reported separately. This change has been backdated to 2016 to allow comparisons over time. Figures for Chinese pupils only are still available via the table tool (within subject 'Key stage 2 attainment by pupil characteristics') and the data file ‘ks2_national_pupil_characteristics_2016_to_2023_provisional.csv.’
Attainment by month of birth
In 2023, as in previous years, pupils born in September were the highest achieving group in all of reading, writing and maths (combined), 66% of this group met the expected standard, unchanged from 2022. Pupils born in August were the lowest achieving group, 52% of this group met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), up from 51% in 2022.
Among the individual subjects of reading, writing and maths, pupils born in September were also the highest achieving, whilst pupils born in August were the lowest achieving.