This section looks at key stage 2 attainment by gender, disadvantage, special education need (SEN) status, first language, month of birth and ethnicity. Further information is available via the table tool and data files, including attainment by free school meal eligibility.
Note that the statistics on disadvantage in this publication update the provisional statistics by including 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.
Attainment and progress by gender
Attainment has fallen compared to 2019 for both boys and girls in all subjects except for reading, where attainment at the expected standard increased from 69% in 2019 to 70% in 2022 for boys and increased from 78% to 80% for girls. In writing, attainment fell from 72% to 63% for boys and from 85% to 76% for girls. In maths, attainment fell from 79% to 71% for girls and to a lesser extent for boys, from 78% to 72%.
Girls outperformed boys in all subjects in 2022 except for maths, where boys performed better than girls at both the expected and higher standard. Among individual subjects, the biggest attainment gap between boys and girls remains in writing at 14 percentage points (in favour of girls).
In reading, writing and maths (combined), 63% of girls met the expected standard compared to 55% of boys, a gap of 9 percentage points, down from 10 percentage points in 2019. This slight narrowing of the gender gap is due to a slightly larger fall in attainment for girls than boys: the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard fell by 7 percentage points for girls and 6 percentage points for boys compared to 2019.
In 2022, 9% of girls achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), down from 13% in 2019. Among boys, 6% achieved the higher standard, down from 9% in 2019.
Progress scores showed a similar pattern to attainment, with girls making more progress relative to boys in reading and writing. Boys made more progress in maths.
Disadvantage gap index
The disadvantage gap index reduced between 2011 and 2018 (indicating that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils was becoming smaller) before remaining at a similar level between 2018 and 2019. The disadvantaged gap index increased from 2.91 in 2019 to 3.23 in 2022, increasing to the highest level since 2012. This suggests that disruption to learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils.
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 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.
Comparisons are made by ordering pupil scores in reading and maths assessments at end of key stage 2 and assessing the difference in the average position of disadvantaged pupils and others. The mean rank of pupils in the disadvantaged and other pupils groups are subtracted from one another and multiplied up by a factor of 20 to give a value between -10 and +10 (where 0 indicates an equal distribution of scores).
The 2022 statistics are now based on revised data. The figures first shown in this publication in September were provisional and did not 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.
The dashed line between 2019 and 2022 signifies the break in the assessments due to the pandemic, though 2019 and 2022 data is comparable.
Attainment and progress by disadvantage status
In 2022, 30% of pupils at the end of key stage 2 were considered disadvantaged.
Attainment has fallen compared to 2019 for both disadvantaged pupils and other pupils at the expected and higher standards in all subjects except for reading. However, the attainment of disadvantaged pupils has fallen further than for other pupils, increasing the disadvantage attainment gap. In writing, attainment fell from 68% to 55% for disadvantaged pupils and from 83% to 75% for other pupils. In maths, attainment fell from 67% to 56% for disadvantaged pupils and from 84% to 78% for other pupils. In reading, attainment remained stable for disadvantaged pupils at 62% and increased from 78% to 80% for other pupils.
In reading, writing and maths (combined), 43% of disadvantaged pupils met the expected standard in 2022 compared to 66% of other pupils, a difference of 23 percentage points. This is an increase from 20 percentage points in 2019, when 51% of disadvantaged pupils and 71% of other pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.
In 2022, 3% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), down from 5% in 2019. Among other pupils, 9% achieved the higher standard, down from 13% in 2019. This means that, although the attainment at the higher standard of both groups decreased, there was a smaller fall for disadvantaged pupils (2 percentage points) than other pupils (4 percentage points).
Disadvantaged pupils make less progress in each of reading, writing and maths than all other pupils with similar prior attainment. Disadvantaged pupils made the least progress in maths (-1.15), whilst those pupils not known to be disadvantaged made most progress in maths (0.54).
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 update the provisional statistics by including pupils in the care of a local authority. These pupils were included in the provisional release if they were also eligible for free school meals during the last 6 years or ceased to be looked-after in the last year.
Attainment and progress by Special Education Need status
In 2022, 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 2022, 4% of all pupils had an EHCP and 15% were on SEN support.
In 2022, 18% of pupils with SEN reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), compared with 22% of pupils SEN in 2019. Of those pupils on SEN support, 21% met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), whilst 7% of those pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan met the standard.
Pupils with SEN made the least progress in writing (-2.10) and the most progress in maths (-1.54), though all were negative progress scores. For those with a EHC plan, least progress was made in reading (-4.49) and the most progress was made in maths (-3.88). For those on SEN support, like the overall group, least progress was made in writing TA (-1.55) and most progress was made in maths (-0.91).
Attainment and progress by first language
In 2022, 21% of pupils at the end of key stage 2 had a first language other than English.
Attainment has fallen compared to 2019 for both pupils with English and a language other than English as their first language at the expected and higher standards in all subjects except for reading. However, the attainment of pupils with English as their first language has fallen further than for pupils with a first language other than English. In writing, attainment fell from 77% to 70% among pupils with a first language other than English and from 79% to 70% among pupils with English as their first language. In maths, attainment fell from 80% to 75% among pupils with a first language other than English and from 78% to 71% among pupils with English as their first language
As a result of these shifts in attainment, the attainment of pupils with a language other than English as their first language at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined) is now greater than that of pupils with a first language of English. This follows several years of the attainment gap between these groups of pupils narrowing. In 2022, 58% of pupils with a first language other than English met the expected standard in all three subjects (down from 65% in 2019) compared to 61% among pupils with English as their first language (down from 64%).
In 2022, 8% of pupils with a language other than English as their first language achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), down from 11% in 2019. Among pupils with English as their first language, 7% achieved the higher standard, down from 11% in 2019.
Pupils with a language other than English as their first language made more progress than their peers at a similar starting point in reading (0.88), writing (1.16) and maths (2.01). Pupils with English as their first language made less progress than their peers at a similar starting point in reading (-0.16), writing (-0.22) and maths (-0.43).
Attainment and progress by ethnicity
Attainment at the end of key stage 2 varies by pupil ethnicity.
Indian pupils are the highest achieving group in all of reading, writing and maths (74% of pupils met the expected standard), followed by Chinese pupils (70%). Gypsy/Roma pupils are the lowest performing group (15% met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), followed by Traveller of Irish heritage pupils (16%).
Chinese pupils made the most progress in reading (1.40), writing (2.02) and maths (4.68). Gypsy/Roma pupils made the least progress in reading (-2.79) and maths (-2.43), whilst traveller of Irish heritage pupils made the least progress in writing (-2.40).
Following feedback from users, we have included Chinese pupils in the Asian ethnic group in this publication for the first time. This is 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_2022_provisional.csv.’
Attainment and progress by month of birth
In 2022, as in previous years, pupils born in September were the highest achieving group in all of reading, writing and maths (66% met the expected standard), while pupils born in August were the lowest achieving group (51% met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined)).
However, pupils born in August made the most progress in reading (0.54), writing (0.42) and maths (0.71). Pupils born in September made the least progress in reading (-0.32), writing (-0.28) and maths (-0.49). This follows a similar pattern to progress in 2019 and suggests that month of birth has a reduced effect on attainment over time.
