Academic year 2023/24

Phonics screening check attainment

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Introduction

This publication provides the attainment of pupils in the 2024 phonics screening check. 

It includes statistics for pupils in schools in England:

  • at national level, broken down by the following pupil characteristics: sex, disadvantage, free school meal eligibility, ethnicity, special educational need status, first language and month of birth;
  • at national level, broken down by the following school characteristics: school type, school phase and school religious character;
  • at regional and local authority level, broken down by sex, free school meal eligibility, ethnicity, special educational need status and first language

Pupils take the phonics screening check at the end of year 1, typically aged 6. Pupils who do not meet the expected standard take the check again at the end of year 2, typically aged 7. 

The screening check was not administered in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

This publication previously included the results of end of KS1 assessments. These became non-statutory from the 2023/24 academic year onwards. Optional assessments were still offered but the results of these are not collected and statistics will not be published. 

All gaps and percentage point differences are calculated from unrounded figures.

In 2024, the methodology for identifying eligible pupils taking the phonics screening check at the end of year 2 has changed, and is no longer directly comparable to previous years. This is because the previous methodology used key stage 1 data that is no longer available as the tests are now non-statutory. Please see the methodology for more details and a time series from 2019 using the new methodology to enable recent comparisons. 

This does not impact the headline metric of pupils taking the screening check in year 1.  

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Headline facts and figures - 2023/24

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National attainment in the phonics screening check

About the phonics screening check

The phonics screening check is a statutory assessment for year 1 pupils (typically aged 6) that confirms whether they have met the expected standard in phonic decoding. All state-funded schools with a year 1 cohort must administer the check. Pupils who do not meet the standard in year 1 or were not checked, must take part in the check at the end of year 2 (typically aged 7). Teachers administer the check one-on-one with each pupil and record whether their response to each of the 40 words is correct. Each pupil is awarded a mark between 0 and 40. 

In 2024, as in previous years, the threshold to determine whether a pupil had met the expected standard is 32. Since 2014, this threshold mark has not been communicated to schools until after the screening check has been completed, however its year-on-year stability means it is predictable.

Attainment in year 1

In 2024, 80% of pupils met the expected standard in year 1, up from 79% in 2023. Previously, the proportion of pupils who met the standard in year 1 increased year-on-year from 58% in 2012 to 82% in 2018, remained stable at 82% in 2019, then decreased to 75% in 2022. 

Attainment in year 2

In 2024, the methodology for identifying the year 2 eligible pupils has changed. This is because key stage 1 data is no longer available as the tests are now non-statutory. 

In 2024, data for the year 2 cohort is produced by matching the year 2 phonics results from the current year with the census and year 1 phonics results from the previous year. Pupils are included in the year 2 figures if: 

  • they have a valid year 2 phonics result from the current year; or 
  • they have a valid year 1 phonics result from the previous year and they are in the census in year 2.

Up until 2023, pupils were included in the year 2 figures if: 

  • they had a valid year 2 phonics result from the current year; or 
  • they had a valid year 1 phonics result from the previous year and they had a valid key stage 1 result in the current year. 

This means that  2024 figures are not comparable to previous  years for  ‘end of year 2’ measures. This does not impact ‘end of year 1’ measures. Please see the methodology for more details and a time series from 2019 using the new methodology to enable recent comparisons. 

The percentage of pupils who met the expected standard in the phonics screening check by the end of year 2 was 89% in 2024. This is not directly comparable to previous years.

Previously, the proportion of pupils who met the expected standard by the end of year 2 had remained broadly stable between 2016 and 2019, then decreased to 87% in 2022 before increasing to 89% in 2023. 

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Phonics attainment by pupil characteristics

This section looks at attainment in year 1 in the phonics screening check by sex, disadvantage, special educational need (SEN) provision, first language, ethnicity and month of birth. Further information is available in the underlying data, including attainment by free school meal eligibility and SEN primary type of need, and attainment in the phonics screening check by the end of year 2.

Attainment by sex

Attainment in the phonics screening check has increased compared to 2023 for both boys and girls. The proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in year 1 increased from 75% to 77% for boys, and from 82% to 84% for girls.

A higher proportion of girls continue to meet the phonics standard in year 1 than boys. The attainment gap is 7 percentage points in 2024, unchanged from 2023. The attainment gap has remained broadly stable since the check was introduced in 2012, when the gap was 8 percentage points.

Attainment by disadvantage status

Definition of disadvantage

Disadvantaged pupils are those known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM) prior to the assessment in year 1 (i.e. not including nursery or reception), have been in the care of the local authority for 1 day or more in the last year or have left local authority care in England and Wales through adoption, a special guardianship order, a residence order or a child arrangements order.

Attainment in the phonics screening check has increased compared to 2023 for both disadvantaged pupils and other pupils. Attainment of the expected standard in the phonics screening check in year 1 increased from 66% to 68% for disadvantaged pupils, and from 83% to 84% for other pupils. This gives a gap of 16 percentage points, unchanged from 2023 (based on unrounded data). 

The proportion of eligible year 1 pupils classified as disadvantaged decreased from 24% in 2012 to 19% in 2019, before increasing to 23% in 2022 and remaining stable at 23% in 2023 and 2024. 

Attainment by Special Educational Need (SEN) status

In 2024, 44% of pupils with SEN met the expected standard in the phonics screening check in year 1, compared with 42% of pupils with SEN in 2023. Among pupils with SEN, 52% of those on SEN support and 20% of those with with an Education, Health and Care plan met the expected standard.

In 2024, 16% of pupils in year 1 had a special educational need (SEN). SEN pupils either have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan or receive SEN support. In 2024, 4% of pupils in year 1 had an EHC plan and 12% were on SEN support.

Attainment by first language 

Attainment in the phonics screening check has increased compared to 2023 for both pupils whose first language is English and those with a first language other than English. Attainment of the expected standard in the phonics screening check in year 1 increased from 80% to 81% for pupils whose first language is English, and from 78% to 80% for pupils whose first language is other than English. This gives a gap of 2 percentage points, broadly similar to previous years (based on unrounded data).

The proportion of year 1 pupils with a first language other than English was 22% in 2024, up from 21% in 2023, and 20% in 2019 and 2022.

Attainment by ethnicity

Attainment in the phonics screening check varies by pupil ethnicity.

In 2024, attainment in the phonics screening check increased or remained the same compared to 2023 for pupils of all ethnicities except Black African pupils where it decreased by 1 percentage point.

In 2024, Chinese pupils were the highest achieving group (91% met the expected standard), followed by Mixed White and Asian pupils (86%), and Indian pupils (85%). Traveller of Irish heritage pupils were the lowest performing group (41% met the expected standard), followed by Gypsy/Roma pupils (48%).

Attainment by month of birth

Attainment in the phonics screening check is higher among pupils born earlier in the academic year (older pupils) than those born later (younger pupils).

As in previous years, pupils born in September were the highest performing group (86% met the expected standard in year 1, up from 85% in 2023), while pupils born in August were the lowest performing group (73% met the expected standard in year 1, up from 72% in 2023). The gap between September born children and August born children was 13 percentage points in 2024, similar to 2023. 

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Phonics attainment by school characteristics

Further information is available via the table tool and data files, including attainment by phase and school religious character.

There were 15,887 state-funded mainstream primary schools with year 1 phonics screening check results in 2024. 

In recent years there have been substantial changes to the makeup of school types in England. The proportion of LA maintained schools with phonics results decreased from 83% in 2016 to 58% in 2024. There have been corresponding increases in the proportion of sponsored and converter academies to 10% and 30% respectively. It should be noted that the conversion of schools from one type to another means that the headline figures capture not only change in performance but also change in school type. While the number of free schools with phonics results has increased to 298, free schools make up a very small proportion of schools (2% in both 2023 and 2024).  

Similar to 2023, attainment levels in mainstream academies and free schools as a group in 2024 (82%) is broadly similar to those in local authority maintained mainstream schools (81%).

Among academies, converter academies had a broadly similar proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard (82%) as all state-funded mainstream schools (81%), while sponsored academies had a slightly lower proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard (79%).

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Phonics attainment by region and local authority

This section includes phonics year 1 attainment at regional and local authority level. Further information is available in the underlying data, including phonics year 1 and by the end of year 2 attainment at regional and local authority level by pupil characteristics.

Attainment by region

Attainment in the phonics screening check has increased in every region compared to both 2023 and 2022. However, attainment remains below 2019 levels for all regions apart from Yorkshire and the Humber which is the same at 80%.

London was the highest performing region in 2024, as in previous years, with 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard. This was up from 81% in 2023 but down from 84% in 2019. 

In all other regions, attainment at the expected standard was between 79% and 81%. The lowest performing regions were the North West and North East.  

The gap between the highest attaining region (London) and the lowest attaining region (North West) was 3 percentage points in 2024. The gap between the highest and lowest region is the same as 2023 (3 percentage points between London and the North East).

Attainment by local authority

The map below shows the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check in year 1 by local authority. This map shows a complex picture of attainment across England, with a range of high and low attainment in different areas.

Attainment in year 1 in the phonics screening check was highest in Richmond upon Thames (88%), Wokingham (87%) and Barnsley (87%) in 2024. Richmond upon Thames and Barnsley saw an increase in attainment of 1 percentage points compared to 2023, whilst Wokingham maintained the same level of attainment as in 2023. Richmond upon Thames and Wokingham were also the highest performing local authorities in 2023.

Attainment was lowest in Manchester (74%) and Nottingham (75%). Manchester maintained the same level of attainment as in 2023, while Nottingham saw a decrease in attainment of 1 percentage point compared to 2023. Newcastle upon Tyne and Luton, which along with Manchester had the lowest attainment in 2023 at 74%, increased by 4 and 3 percentage points respectively.  

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If you have a specific enquiry about Phonics screening check attainment statistics and data:

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