Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of (a) literacy and (b) numeracy of (i) primary school and (ii) secondary school leavers in Romford constituency in each of the last 10 years.

The number and percentage of pupils in state-funded schools, at the end of Key Stage 2 (KS2) and Key Stage 4 (KS4), who achieved the expected level of literacy or numeracy[1] in Romford constituency and England are in the attached tables.

Figures relate to academic years 2013/14 to 2018/19 for KS2 and 2013/14 to 2017/18 for KS4. Data for the years 2009/10 – 2012/13 are not provided because collating this information is complex due to changes in the methodology, published content and producing this data would incur a disproportionate cost. KS4 data for 2018/19 is not provided because the Department will publish data for parliamentary constituencies as part of the ‘Key stage 4 performance, 2019 (revised)’ in January 2020.

At KS2, attainment in Romford was above the national average in all subjects in all years for which data has been provided (2014-2019). In 2016, new tests and frameworks for teacher assessment were brought in at KS2. These changes mean that the expected standard from 2016 is higher and it is not possible to make direct comparisons between the results before and after these changes. Since 2016[2], attainment in Romford increased by 11% in the reading test, 12% in the Maths test and 6% in the grammar, punctuation and spelling test. These increases were greater than for state-funded schools in England as a whole during the same time period, which were 7%, 9% and 5%.

At KS4, achievement of grades 9-4/A*-C in the English and Maths pillars of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)[3] are used. Achievement at grades 9-4/A*-C in the English and mathematics pillar of the EBacc are close for Romford and England from 2013/14 to 2017/18. However, for the English pillar Romford performed better than the national average in the last two years (77% in 2017/18 for Romford, compared to 75% nationally). For the Mathematics pillar, Romford’s attainment has been slightly lower than the national average (69% in 2017/18 for Romford compared to 70% nationally).

Pupils must achieve at least a grade 4 in English and Maths at the end of KS4 or are required to resit these qualifications in post 16 education.

[1] There is not a definitive definition of expected level of literacy or numeracy for each key stage. Figures have been provided for achievement in English and Maths, or English and Maths subjects, in the headline or additional measures that were used for that key stage, in each academic year.

[2] Changes made within the 2017/18 KS2 writing teacher assessment (TA) frameworks mean judgements in 2018 are not directly comparable to those made in previous years. This means there is not a suitable time series for comparisons between years for all of reading, writing and maths and the writing TA.

[3] The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is a set of subjects at GCSE that keeps young people’s options open for further study and future careers. The EBacc comprises of: English language and literature; maths; the sciences; geography or history; a language.