Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential change in pupils achieving the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2 in the academic year 2021-22.

The department welcomes the increase in reading attainment from 73% in 2019 to 74% in 2022, despite the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, attainment in maths and writing has fallen, with the percentage of children meeting the expected standard in maths being 71% (down eight percentage points from 2019), and a decrease of nine percentage points in writing, down from 78% in 2019 to 69% in 2022.

It is vital that the department knows the impact on this cohort of pupils nationally and can give support to schools that need it the most. This is why we went ahead with the full programme of statutory assessments in 2022.

Unlike GCSE and A level exams, key stage 2 assessments were not adapted for pupils in 2022, and the expected standards in the assessments remained the same as in 2019. This consistency means assessments can be used to help understand more clearly the impact of the pandemic on pupils and schools, and how this varies between groups of pupils, schools and local authority areas. National level attainment data at key stage 2 will give us an important baseline as we work towards our target of 90% of children leaving primary school at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by 2030.