Maths attainments for children aged 7 to 11 (key stage 2)

Published 10 October 2017

Last updated 5 March 2018 - see all updates

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• in 2015/16, there were 586,157 pupils in key stage 2 at state-funded mainstream schools in England, and ethnicity was known for 581,278 pupils (99%) of them

• 76% were White, 11% were Asian, 6% were Black, 5% were Mixed, 2% belonged to the Other ethnic group and 0.4% were Chinese

• across all ethnic groups, 70% reached the expected standard for maths, 17% met the higher standard, and 103 was the average scaled score

• Chinese children were most likely to meet the expected and higher standard, had the highest average scaled score and made the most progress in maths between key stage 1 and key stage 2

• Gypsy/Roma children were least likely to meet both the expected standard and higher standard and had the lowest average scaled score

• children from a Traveller of Irish Heritage background made the least progress in maths between key stage 1 and key stage 2

• across all ethnic groups, boys and girls were equally likely to meet the expected standard, but boys were more likely than girls to reach the higher standard

Things you need to know

The Department for Education (DfE) has excluded, or ‘suppressed’, very small numbers (for example, values of 1 or 2, a percentage based on 1 or 2 pupils who achieved, or 0, 1 or 2 pupils who did not achieve a particular standard).

This is because, where the size of the ethnic group population is small enough that an individual’s identity could be revealed, information is suppressed to preserve confidentiality. This is consistent with DfE’s statistical policy statement on confidentiality (PDF opens in a new window or tab) (PDF).

Pupil numbers for key stage 2 vary between measures of attainment for different subjects. This is because pupils who don't have a valid test result for a particular subject are excluded from the total. For more about valid test results, see the Methodology section.

What the data measures

This data measures the maths attainment of children in key stage 2 (years 3 to 6, when pupils are aged between 7 and 11).

The data covers the academic year 2015/16 (September 2015 to July 2016).

Key stage 2 test results range from 80 to 120 on a ‘scaled score’. (A ‘scaled score’ allows for variations in test difficulty year on year by standardising each pupil’s test results. This allows a clearer comparison between years.)

Standards in maths are divided into 2 categories:

• expected standard
• higher standard

To reach the expected standard, pupils must have achieved a scaled score of 100 or more in their key stage 2 maths tests.

To reach the higher standard, pupils must have achieved a score of 110 or more in their key stage 2 maths tests.

The measure also looks at:

• average scaled score
• progress score

The average scaled score measures the average attainment of pupils in key stage 2 maths tests. This data compares the average scaled score for all children in England with the score for particular ethnic groups.

The progress score measures the progress that pupils make from the end of key stage 1 to the end of key stage 2, when they leave primary school.

A pupil’s results are compared to the actual achievements of other pupils nationally with similar key stage 1 attainment. This data compares the average progress score of all children in England with the score for particular ethnic groups.

A progress score of 0 (the national average) means pupils are making the expected amount of progress. A positive score (0.1 and above) means they are making more progress than expected, and a negative score (-0.1 and below) less progress than expected.

The ethnic categories used in this data

This data uses categories from the Department for Education’s school census, which is broadly based on the 2001 national Census, with 3 exceptions:

• Traveller of Irish Heritage and Gypsy/Roma children have been separated into 2 categories
• Sri Lankan has been added to the Asian/Asian British group but is not reported separately
• Chinese pupils have been assigned a separate category

These changes were made after consultations with local authorities and lobby groups.

The categories in the school census are as follows:

White:

• White British
• White Irish
• Traveller of Irish Heritage
• Gypsy/Roma
• Other White

Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups:

• White and Black Caribbean
• White and Black African
• White and Asian
• Other Mixed background

Asian/Asian British:

• Indian
• Pakistani
• Bangladeshi
• Sri Lankan
• Other Asian background

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British:

• Black African
• Black Caribbean
• Other Black background
• Chinese
• Other ethnic group

Information is provided for both detailed and broad ethnic groups where possible and when the data is available.

The 6 broad categories used are as follows:

• Asian/Asian British
• Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
• Chinese
• Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
• White
• Other ethnic group

However, local authority data is only provided for 5 broad ethnic groups. Information about the specific ethnic categories is excluded to preserve confidentiality and ensure individuals cannot be identified. Information about the Other ethnic group is not given because DfE does not publish data for this group at the local authority level.

The 5 broad categories are as follows:

• Asian/Asian British
• Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
• Chinese
• Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
• White

2. Maths attainment for children aged 7 to 11 by ethnicity

• Location: England
• Time period: 2015/16
• Source: National curriculum assessments: key stage 2, 2016 (revised)

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standard in mathematics, and average scaled score and progress score, by ethnicity

Ethnicity	Expected standard	Higher standard	Average scaled score	Progress score
All	70	17	103	0.0
Asian	75	23	104	1.7
Bangladeshi	75	20	104	1.8
Indian	82	33	106	2.3
Pakistani	67	16	103	0.9
Asian other	81	32	106	3.0
Black	68	14	103	0.6
Black African	72	16	103	1.2
Black Caribbean	60	8	101	-0.8
Black other	65	12	102	0.2
Chinese	92	50	109	4.5
Mixed	70	18	103	0.0
Mixed White/Asian	78	24	105	0.7
Mixed White/Black African	69	15	103	-0.1
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	63	11	101	-1.1
Mixed other	72	20	104	0.4
White	69	16	103	-0.3
White British	69	15	103	-0.5
White Irish	75	22	104	0.6
White Irish Traveller	33	3	97	-1.4
White Gypsy/Roma	26	1	96	-1.0
White other	70	18	103	2.3
Other	73	20	104	2.4
Unknown	59	14	102	-0.2

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Maths attainments for children aged 7 to 11 (key stage 2) Maths attainment for children aged 7 to 11 by ethnicity Summary

The data shows that:

• across all ethnic groups, 70% of pupils reached the expected standard and 17% met the higher standard for maths

• Chinese children were most likely to meet the expected and higher standard, with 92% and 50% doing so respectively

• Chinese children had the highest average scaled score, with a score of 109 compared with the national average of 103

• Chinese children made the most progress in maths between key stage 1 and key stage 2, with a score of 4.5, compared with the national average of 0

• Gypsy/Roma children were least likely to meet both the expected and higher standard, with 26% and 1% doing so

• Gypsy/Roma children also had the lowest average scaled score, at 96, compared with a national average of 103

• children from a Traveller of Irish heritage background made the least progress in maths between key stage 1 and key stage 2, with a score of -1.4, compared with a national average of 0

3. Maths attainment for children aged 7 to 11 by ethnicity and area

• Location: England
• Time period: 2015/16
• Source: National curriculum assessments: key stage 2, 2016 (revised)

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in maths by ethnicity and area

Local authority	All	Asian	Black	Chinese	Mixed	White
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Barking and Dagenham	77	87	79	100	72	71
Barnet	77	81	66		73	81
Barnsley	72		73		75	71
Bath and North East Somerset	68	78	43		74	68
Bedford	59	58	51		59	60
Bexley	75	86	80	100	80	72
Birmingham	66	67	62	94	65	65
Blackburn with Darwen	73	73	87		77	73
Blackpool	69	83			79	69
Bolton	74	81	66		77	72
Bournemouth	71	73	79		65	71
Bracknell Forest	66	78	51		70	65
Bradford	66	69	64		65	64
Brent	75	82	69		73	76
Brighton and Hove	70	68	49		71	71
Bristol, City of	68	70	55	81	64	71
Bromley	81	94	78		79	81
Buckinghamshire	72	73	58	100	71	73
Bury	72	70	51		68	73
Calderdale	67	67	58		72	67
Cambridgeshire	67	77	47	87	71	66
Camden	79	79	78		79	79
Central Bedfordshire	65	74	57		72	64
Cheshire East	72	87		100	73	72
Cheshire West and Chester	69	76	62		74	69
City of London	100	100	100			100
Cornwall	65	64	57	100	64	65
County Durham	75	93		100	77	75
Coventry	67	76	68		61	65
Croydon	70	81	65	100	68	71
Cumbria	67	83			83	67
Darlington	74	82			71	74
Derby	64	68	60	100	68	63
Derbyshire	70	76	83	100	69	70
Devon	69	73	61		72	69
Doncaster	64	67	83	75	67	63
Dorset	63	78	50	100	62	63
Dudley	66	71	64		62	65
Ealing	75	78	65	100	74	77
East Riding of Yorkshire	68				70	68
East Sussex	66	74	50	65	67	66
Enfield	72	83	68	100	68	72
Essex	71	83	73	94	74	71
Gateshead	76	73	88		79	76
Gloucestershire	70	79	59		68	70
Greenwich	78	88	81	100	76	72
Hackney	78	80	72		79	83
Halton	65				68	65
Hammersmith and Fulham	79	87	77		79	79
Hampshire	72	80	72		73	71
Haringey	74	77	65	81	78	79
Harrow	79	86	63	100	75	76
Hartlepool	72	88	50			71
Havering	77	85	79	100	75	76
Herefordshire, County of	67				66	67
Hertfordshire	73	83	66	94	73	72
Hillingdon	76	83	73		77	73
Hounslow	77	83	67	100	73	75
Isle of Wight	63	33			71	63
Isles of Scilly	55					55
Islington	75	79	73		72	76
Kensington and Chelsea	85	83	85		82	87
Kent	72	85	81		78	70
Kingston upon Hull, City of	69	84	64		75	69
Kingston upon Thames	79	85	63	100	74	77
Kirklees	67	68	59	100	57	68
Knowsley	67	89	78		81	66
Lambeth	80	88	76		77	84
Lancashire	70	69	58	91	69	70
Leeds	66	65	58	93	67	66
Leicester	71	77	71	100	65	64
Leicestershire	68	77	73	83	66	68
Lewisham	73	85	69		74	74
Lincolnshire	67	88	63	100	64	67
Liverpool	65	82	66		62	65
Luton	64	64	60	100	60	65
Manchester	71	71	73	89	70	70
Medway	65	80	79		66	63
Merton	76	86	68	100	67	74
Middlesbrough	71	67	82		69	71
Milton Keynes	72	91	69	100	69	69
Newcastle upon Tyne	72	76	64	80	70	72
Newham	80	84	76		73	76
Norfolk	62	80	53	84	68	62
North East Lincolnshire	69	75			74	69
North Lincolnshire	67	64	45		81	68
North Somerset	70	83	57		69	70
North Tyneside	73	69	50	100	76	73
North Yorkshire	66	79	55	100	83	66
Northamptonshire	66	75	62	79	65	66
Northumberland	69	72			64	69
Nottingham	70	75	69	100	67	68
Nottinghamshire	70	73	66	86	72	70
Oldham	68	67	73		60	70
Oxfordshire	69	67	62		70	69
Peterborough	61	68	56		54	60
Plymouth	69	71	80	100	74	69
Poole	69	89			60	68
Portsmouth	64	80	55	100	58	63
Reading	68	80	59		64	67
Redbridge	76	81	65	100	73	70
Redcar and Cleveland	78				89	78
Richmond upon Thames	82	87	70		79	82
Rochdale	70	68	56	100	67	72
Rotherham	72	75	74	100	78	71
Rutland	68				58	68
Salford	75	82	72		77	75
Sandwell	70	76	64		67	69
Sefton	74	73	56		81	74
Sheffield	69	70	63		65	69
Shropshire	69	75	57	100	72	69
Slough	73	79	67		73	65
Solihull	72	76	77	100	71	71
Somerset	68	76	58		74	68
South Gloucestershire	69	90	61		69	69
South Tyneside	75	91			73	74
Southampton	71	72	83		74	70
Southend-on-Sea	71	78	66		72	70
Southwark	74	86	70	100	69	78
St. Helens	71	85			83	70
Staffordshire	69	73	60	89	69	69
Stockport	74	72	57	79	81	74
Stockton-on-Tees	72	75	73	100	71	72
Stoke-on-Trent	63	66	62	100	67	63
Suffolk	64	79	60		67	64
Sunderland	75	82		100	53	75
Surrey	74	79	66		79	74
Sutton	80	94	80	100	81	76
Swindon	70	81	75		67	69
Tameside	70	71	66		77	69
Telford and Wrekin	71	72	61		70	71
Thurrock	68	78	79		63	65
Torbay	69			100	72	68
Tower Hamlets	79	81	72	100	69	74
Trafford	81	85	80		79	80
Wakefield	67	64	57		67	67
Walsall	67	70	68	100	70	66
Waltham Forest	76	78	73	100	73	77
Wandsworth	75	77	67		69	80
Warrington	76	76	55	100	87	75
Warwickshire	71	84	57		70	70
West Berkshire	70	77	74	100	74	69
West Sussex	63	72	54	63	66	63
Westminster	76	80	73	100	81	79
Wigan	74	74	60	100	69	75
Wiltshire	67	69	49	100	66	67
Windsor and Maidenhead	73	73	53		81	72
Wirral	64	80		78	61	64
Wokingham	77	88	82		72	76
Wolverhampton	70	77	64		66	69
Worcestershire	64	69	54	60	69	64
York	69	83			81	69

Data withheld to protect confidentiality

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Maths attainments for children aged 7 to 11 (key stage 2) Maths attainment for children aged 7 to 11 by ethnicity and area Summary

This data for expected standards for maths shows that:

• overall, the best performing local authority was the City of London in the region of London, where 100% of pupils met the expected standard – however, because there is only one school of 28 pupils in the City of London, this result should be treated with caution

• the worst performing local authority overall was the Isles of Scilly in the South West, where 55% of pupils met the expected standard – however, because there is only one school of 20 pupils on the Isles of Scilly, this result should be treated with caution

• White pupils were most likely to meet the expected standard in the City of London and Kensington and Chelsea in London, and least likely to meet it in the Isles of Scilly in the South West and Bedford and Peterborough in the East of England

• Asian pupils were most likely to meet the expected standard in the City of London, Bromley and Sutton in London, and least likely to meet it on the Isle of Wight in the South West

• 100% of Chinese pupils met the expected standard in maths in 47 local authorities; they were least likely to meet the expected standard in Worcestershire in the West Midlands

• Black pupils were most likely to meet the expected standard in the City of London and Gateshead in the North East, and least likely to meet it in Bath and North East in the South West

• pupils from a Mixed ethnic background were most likely to meet the expected standard in Redcar and Cleveland in the North East and least likely to meet it in Sunderland in the North East

4. Maths attainment for children aged 7 to 11 by ethnicity and gender

• Location: England
• Time period: 2015/16
• Source: National curriculum assessments: key stage 2, 2016 (revised)

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standard in mathematics, and average scaled score and progress score, by ethnicity and gender

	Boys				Girls
Ethnicity	Boys Expected standard	Boys Higher standard	Boys Average scaled score	Boys Progress score	Girls Expected standard	Girls Higher standard	Girls Average scaled score	Girls Progress score
All	70	18	103	0.6	70	15	103	-0.6
Asian	75	25	105	2.4	75	21	104	1.1
Bangladeshi	75	22	104	2.5	75	19	104	1.1
Indian	82	35	107	2.9	83	31	106	1.7
Pakistani	68	17	103	1.6	67	14	102	0.3
Asian other	81	34	106	3.7	81	30	106	2.3
Black	67	15	103	1.0	70	13	103	0.2
Black African	71	17	103	1.6	73	15	103	0.7
Black Caribbean	58	9	101	-0.4	61	8	101	-1.1
Black other	64	13	102	0.8	66	11	102	-0.4
Chinese	92	53	110	5.4	92	48	109	3.6
Mixed	70	19	103	0.6	71	16	103	-0.6
Mixed White/Asian	77	26	105	1.3	78	22	104	0.0
Mixed White/Black African	69	17	103	0.4	70	14	103	-0.5
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	62	12	102	-0.5	63	10	101	-1.7
Mixed other	72	21	104	1.0	73	18	103	-0.2
White	69	17	103	0.3	69	14	103	-1.0
White British	70	17	103	0.1	69	14	103	-1.1
White Irish	74	23	104	1.1	76	21	104	0.0
White Irish Traveller	30		96	-1.2	37		97	-1.6
White Gypsy/Roma	26		96	-0.5	25		96	-1.6
White other	71	20	104	2.9	69	16	103	1.7
Other	73	22	104	3.0	73	18	104	1.7
Unknown	59	15	103	0.5	58	12	102	-0.9

Data withheld to protect confidentiality

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Maths attainments for children aged 7 to 11 (key stage 2) Maths attainment for children aged 7 to 11 by ethnicity and gender Summary

This data shows that:

• boys and girls were equally likely to meet the expected standard for maths, with 70% of each group doing so

• boys were more likely to reach the higher standard, with 18% doing so compared with 15% of girls

• Chinese boys performed best, with 92% reaching the expected standard and 53% reaching the higher standard

• Chinese boys made the most progress in maths between key stage 1 and key stage 2, with a score of 5.4 compared with the national average of 0

• Chinese boys had the highest average scaled score, with a score of 110, compared with the national average of 103

• Gypsy/Roma girls were least likely to meet the expected standard, with 25% doing so

• the percentage of Gypsy/Roma boys and girls and Traveller of Irish Heritage boys and girls meeting the higher standard has been excluded from the results to protect the identity of individual pupils

• Gypsy/Roma pupils and boys from a Traveller of Irish Heritage background also had the lowest average scaled score, at 96

• girls from the Gypsy/Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage groups made the least progress in maths between key stage 1 and key stage 2, with a score of -1.6

5. Methodology

The key stage 2 datasets are compiled using information matched together from 3 data sources:

• prior attainment records (key stage 1 results)
• school census records
• qualification entries and results collected from awarding bodies

Key stage assessment data received from the Standard Testing Agency (STA) is combined with information on pupil's characteristics from the school census and prior attainment. Records are matched, using fields such as surname, forename, date of birth, UPN (unique pupil number), gender and postcode. This successfully matches around 60% to 70% of pupils.

Additional, more complex, routines are then applied to match as many of the remaining pupils as possible, up to around 98%. The coverage of the local authority and regional statistics is state-funded mainstream schools only in England. This includes schools and academies but excludes hospital schools, pupil referral units and alternative provision.

Confidence intervals for progress results are calculated for a school based on a specific group of pupils. A school may have been just as effective, but have performed differently with a different set of pupils. Similarly, some pupils may be more likely to achieve high or low results, independently of which school they attend.

To account for this natural uncertainty, 95% confidence intervals around progress scores are provided in the data download. This means that if the progress scores of 100 random schools were taken, then 95 times out of 100 their progress score would fall between the upper and lower confidence interval. But 5 times out of 100 it would fall outside this range.

School scores should be interpreted alongside their associated confidence intervals. If the lower confidence interval is greater than zero, it can be interpreted as meaning that the school has achieved greater than average progress compared to pupils with similar starting points nationally.

Similarly, if the upper confidence interval is below zero, then the school has made less than average progress. Where the 95% confidence intervals overlap zero, this means that the school’s progress score is not significantly different from the national average.

The system of national curriculum levels is no longer used by the government to report on end of key stage assessment.

For this reason, the previous 'expected progress' measure, based on pupils making at least two levels of progress between key stage 1 and key stage 2, will not appear in the performance tables or Reporting and Analysis for Improvement through school Self-Evaluation (RAISEonline) in 2016.

This measure has been replaced by 'value added' progress measures in reading, writing and mathematics.

There is no 'target' for the amount of progress an individual pupil is expected to make, and any amount of progress a pupil makes contributes towards the school's progress scores.

Because of the changes to the curriculum, figures for 2016 are not comparable to those for earlier years.

Any pupils who do not have a valid result for a subject are excluded from the calculations for that subject and do not appear in the number of eligible pupils or in the outcome percentages for that subject.

Valid results for the national test figures are:

• achieved the expected standard
• not achieved the expected standard
• special consideration
• absent
• working below the standard of the test
• unable to access the test

Suppression rules and disclosure control

Values of 1 or 2 or a percentage based on 1 or 2 pupils who achieved, or did not achieve, a particular standard are suppressed. Some additional figures may be suppressed to prevent the possibility of a suppressed figure being revealed. This suppression is consistent with DfE’s statistical policy statement on confidentiality (PDF opens in a new window or tab) (PDF).

Figures for the Isles of Scilly and City of London are suppressed in DfE’s key stage 2 provisional Statistical First Release as these local authorities have a single school and DfE do not publish school level information in the performance tables at the time of the provisional release. These figures are unsuppressed in the revised release as school level figures are already published in the performance tables.

Regional eligible pupil figures are rounded to the nearest 10 so that it is not possible to derive figures for these local authorities by summing the figures for the other local authorities in the region.

In the school level data, any figures relating to a cohort of 5 pupils or fewer are suppressed. This applies to sub-groups of pupils as well as the whole cohort, for example, if there were five boys and three girls in a school, DfE would not publish attainment for boys or girls separately but would publish attainment for all pupils as this is based on 8 pupils. The Code of Practice for Official Statistics requires DfE to take reasonable steps to ensure that their published or disseminated statistics protect confidentiality.

For more information about DfE’s disclosure control procedures for its statistical releases please see DfE’s statistical policy statement on confidentiality (PDF opens in a new window or tab) (PDF).

Rounding

All charts and tables are rounded to the nearest whole number. Progress scores are given to 1 decimal place

Related publications

Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2016

Quality and methodology information

6. Data sources

Source

National curriculum assessments: key stage 2, 2016 (revised)

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Education

Publication frequency

3 times a year

Purpose of data source

The main purpose is to measure schools' and pupils' progress and performance from key stage 1 to key stage 2 to monitor and improve standards and inform parental choice when applying to local schools.

7. Download the data

Expected standard in maths - Spreadsheet (csv) 176 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, region, local authority, gender, value and denominator

Average scaled score in maths - Spreadsheet (csv) 14 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, gender, value and denominator

Higher standard in maths - Spreadsheet (csv) 15 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, gender, value and denominator

Progress score in maths - Spreadsheet (csv) 11 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, gender, value and confidence intervals

Publication release date: 10 October 2017

Updated: 5 March 2018

full page history

1. 5 March 2018 minor corrections for style
2. 11 October 2017 Technical change: Updated url to match page title.
3. 10 October 2017 First published

From: Department for Education

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