School results for 5 to 7 year olds

Published

1. Main facts and figures

  • in the 2021 to 2022 school year, the Chinese ethnic group had the highest percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standards in reading, writing, maths and science out of all ethnic groups
  • white Gypsy or Roma pupils had the lowest percentage meeting the expected and higher standards in reading, writing, maths and science – pupils from an Irish Traveller background had the joint lowest percentage meeting the expected and higher standards in writing
  • 86% of pupils in the Chinese ethnic group met the expected standard in phonics in year 1, and 92% of pupils in the Indian ethnic group met the expected standard in year 2 – the highest percentages out of all ethnic groups
  • pupils in the Traveller of Irish Heritage ethnic group had the lowest percentage who met the expected standard in phonics in both year 1 (35%) and year 2 (49%)

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data shows the percentage of pupils at state-funded schools in England who met the expected standard in:

  • phonics
  • science

It also shows the percentage who met the expected and higher standards in:

  • reading
  • writing
  • maths

Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Not included in the data

The data does not include:

  • pupils in independent schools, alternative provision or those who are home schooling
  • local authority figures for the Isles of Scilly and City of London as they only have one school each – this means there are not enough pupils to be able to make reliable generalisations

The ethnic groups used in the data

Data is shown for the 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census, with 2 exceptions:

  • there are separate categories for white Irish Traveller and white Gypsy and Roma pupils
  • pupils in the Chinese ethnic group are in a separate category from Asian pupils

Ethnicity was known for 98% of year 1 pupils and 99% of year 2 pupils.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document for the data on this page.

In the data file

You can download the data for further breakdowns by local authority, gender and free school meals eligibility.

Local authority data is shown for 5 aggregated ethnic groups:

  • Asian
  • black
  • mixed
  • white
  • other

This means percentages are shown for these groups as a whole. This is to make sure group sizes are big enough to make reliable generalisations.

3. By ethnicity (phonics)

Percentage of year 1 and year 2 pupils meeting the expected standard in phonics, by ethnicity
Ethnicity Year 1 Year 2
% %
All 75 87
Asian 79 89
Bangladeshi 77 88
Indian 84 92
Pakistani 74 87
Asian other 78 87
Black 76 86
Black African 77 87
Black Caribbean 72 83
Black other 74 85
Chinese 86 90
Mixed 77 88
Mixed white and Asian 82 91
Mixed white and black African 77 88
Mixed white and black Carribean 71 85
Mixed other 78 89
White 76 87
White British 76 87
White Irish 76 85
Gypsy or Roma 36 53
Irish Traveller 35 49
White other 76 87
Other 71 82
Unknown 54 68

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity (phonics)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity (phonics)’ (CSV)

4. By ethnicity (reading)

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standards in reading, by ethnicity
Ethnicity Expected standard Higher standard
All 67 18
Asian 69 19
Bangladeshi 68 17
Indian 76 25
Pakistani 63 13
Asian other 68 19
Black 67 16
Black African 69 17
Black Caribbean 63 13
Black other 65 15
Chinese 78 33
Mixed 70 20
Mixed white and Asian 75 26
Mixed white and black African 69 18
Mixed white and black Caribbean 61 13
Mixed other 71 21
White 67 18
White British 68 18
White Irish 70 25
Gypsy or Roma 23 2
Irish Traveller 26 3
White other 65 16
Other 59 14
Unknown 48 12

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity (reading)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity (reading)’ (CSV)

5. By ethnicity (writing)

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standards in reading, by ethnicity
Ethnicity Expected standard Higher standard
All 58 8
Asian 62 10
Bangladeshi 62 9
Indian 71 14
Pakistani 55 6
Asian other 61 10
Black 59 8
Black African 61 9
Black Caribbean 52 6
Black other 56 7
Chinese 73 21
Mixed 60 10
Mixed white and Asian 67 13
Mixed white and black African 60 9
Mixed white and black Caribbean 51 5
Mixed other 62 11
White 57 8
White British 57 8
White Irish 61 11
Gypsy or Roma 18 1
Irish Traveller 18 1
White other 57 8
Other 52 7
Unknown 40 5

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity (writing)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity (writing)’ (CSV)

6. By ethnicity (maths)

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standards in maths, by ethnicity
Ethnicity Expected standard Higher standard
All 68 15
Asian 71 19
Bangladeshi 69 17
Indian 78 25
Pakistani 63 12
Asian other 70 19
Black 64 14
Black African 66 15
Black Caribbean 58 9
Black other 62 12
Chinese 88 41
Mixed 69 17
Mixed white and Asian 75 22
Mixed white and black African 67 14
Mixed white and black Caribbean 60 10
Mixed other 71 18
White 68 15
White British 68 15
White Irish 70 20
Gypsy or Roma 25 2
Irish Traveller 29 3
White other 69 15
Other 62 14
Unknown 50 10

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity (maths)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity (maths)’ (CSV)

7. By ethnicity (science)

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in science, by ethnicity
Ethnicity Expected standard
All 77
Asian 76
Bangladeshi 74
Indian 82
Pakistani 70
Asian other 75
Black 73
Black African 74
Black Caribbean 70
Black other 71
Chinese 86
Mixed 78
Mixed white and Asian 83
Mixed white and black African 78
Mixed white and black Caribbean 73
Mixed other 79
White 78
White British 79
White Irish 80
Gypsy or Roma 37
Irish Traveller 39
White other 75
Other 67
Unknown 56

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity (science)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity (science)’ (CSV)

8. Data sources

Source

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Education

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

This publication provides the attainment of pupils in the 2023 phonics screening check and key stage 1 national curriculum teacher assessments.

9. Download the data

KS1 National Curriculum assessment results National - Spreadsheet (csv) 277 KB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Geography Geography_type, Geography_code, Gender, Age, FSM, Value, Value_type, Denominator, Numerator

KS1 National Curriculum assessment results Local Authority - Spreadsheet (csv) 1 MB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Geography Geography_type, Geography_code, Gender, Age, FSM, Value, Value_type, Denominator, Numerator

KS1 Phonics assessment results National - Spreadsheet (csv) 54 KB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Geography Geography_type, Geography_code, Gender, Age, FSM, Value, Value_type, Denominator, Numerator

KS1 Phonics assessment results Local Authority - Spreadsheet (csv) 469 KB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Geography Geography_type, Geography_code, Gender, Age, FSM, Value, Value_type, Denominator, Numerator