Reading, writing and maths results for 10 to 11 year olds

Published 4 June 2019

Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• in 2017/18, 64% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by the end of key stage 2 (when they are usually 10 or 11 years old)
• 10% of pupils met the higher standard
• out of all ethnic groups, pupils from the Chinese group were the most to meet both the expected and higher standards
• White Gypsy/Roma pupils were the least likely to meet both the expected and higher standards
• girls were more likely than boys to meet both the expected and higher standards in most ethnic groups
• pupils eligible for free school meals (used as a sign of disadvantage) were less likely to meet the expected standard than other pupils

Things you need to know

In 2017/18, there were 619,350 pupils assessed for reading, writing and maths in key stage 2 in state-funded mainstream schools, and ethnicity was known for 613,802 (99%) of them.

Of those whose ethnicity was known, 75% were White, 11% were Asian, 6% were Black, 6% were Mixed, 0.4% were Chinese and 2% were from another ethnic group.

Attainment in all of reading, writing and maths is not directly comparable to previous years because of changes to writing teacher assessment frameworks.

Previous versions of this page included attainment figures broken down by local authority area. The 2017/18 figures for local authorities will be added as soon as they are available.

What the data measures

This data measures the percentage of eligible pupils who met the expected and higher standards in reading, writing and maths at the end of key stage 2 when children are 10 or 11 years old.

The data covers the academic year 2017/18 (September 2017 to July 2018). Data for the academic year 2015/16 and 2016/17 is available in the download file.

The standards are:

• expected standard – to meet this, pupils must have achieved a ‘scaled score’ of 100 or more in reading and maths, and have been assessed in writing as 'working at the expected standard' or 'working at a greater depth within the expected standard'
• higher standard (sometimes called the ‘high score’) – to meet this, pupils must have achieved a ‘scaled score’ of 110 or more in reading and maths, and have been assessed in writing as 'working at a greater depth within the expected standard'

A pupil’s scaled score can range from 80 to 120. 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.

You can read more about scaled scores at key stage 2.

The ethnic categories used in this data

This data uses categories from the Department for Education’s school census. These groupings are 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 is included in the Asian/Asian British group but is not reported separately
• Chinese pupils have been assigned a separate category from Asian

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

Data is reported for broad and detailed ethnic categories. These are

Asian/Asian British:

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

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British:

• Black African
• Black Caribbean
• Black Other

Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups:

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

White:

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

Chinese

Other ethnic group

2. By ethnicity

• Location: England
• Time period: 2017/18
• Source: Key stage 2 statistics

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standards in reading, writing and maths by ethnicity

Ethnicity	expected standard	higher standard
All	64	10
Asian	68	12
Bangladeshi	69	11
Indian	76	18
Pakistani	61	7
Asian other	72	15
Black	63	8
Black African	66	9
Black Caribbean	55	5
Black other	61	7
Chinese	81	28
Mixed	66	11
Mixed White/Asian	72	16
Mixed White/Black African	65	10
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	57	6
Mixed other	68	13
White	64	10
White British	65	10
White Irish	70	15
Gypsy/Roma	18	0
Irish Traveller	22	0
White other	61	9
Other	61	9
Unknown	52	8

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary

The data shows that:

• overall, in 2017/18, 64% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (when they are usually 10 or 11 years old), and 10% met the higher standard
• pupils from the Chinese ethnic group had the highest attainment of all the ethnic groups, with 81% of pupils meeting the expected standard and 28% meeting the higher standard
• White Gypsy/Roma pupils had the lowest attainment, with 18% meeting the expected standard and 0% meeting the higher standard

3. By ethnicity and eligibility for free school meals

• Location: England
• Time period: 2017/18
• Source: Key stage 2 statistics

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by ethnicity and free school meals

Ethnicity	FSM	Non-FSM
	%	%
All	46	68
Asian	57	70
Bangladeshi	63	70
Indian	61	77
Pakistani	53	63
Asian other	58	74
Black	54	66
Black African	57	68
Black Caribbean	47	58
Black other	54	63
Chinese	77	82
Mixed	50	70
Mixed White/Asian	52	76
Mixed White/Black African	51	69
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	44	62
Mixed other	53	71
White	43	67
White British	43	68
White Irish	40	75
Gypsy/Roma	15	19
Irish Traveller	20	29
White other	48	62
Other	49	64
Unknown	45	53

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2017/18, 15% of pupils in year 6 were known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM)
• 46% of FSM-eligible pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, compared with 68% of non-FSM pupils
• in every ethnic group, FSM-eligible pupils were less likely to meet the expected standard than non-FSM pupils
• pupils from the Chinese ethnic group had the highest attainment of any FSM-eligible group – with 77% meeting the expected standard – and of any non-FSM group, with 82% meeting the expected standard
• White Gypsy/Roma pupils had the lowest attainment of any FSM-eligible group – with 15% meeting the expected standard – and of any non-FSM group, with 19% meeting the expected standard

4. By ethnicity and gender

• Location: England
• Time period: 2017/18
• Source: Key stage 2 statistics

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standards in reading, writing and maths by ethnicity and gender

	Boys		Girls
Ethnicity	Expected standard	Higher standard	Expected standard	Higher standard
All	61	8	68	12
Asian	65	10	72	14
Bangladeshi	66	9	73	13
Indian	73	15	80	21
Pakistani	58	6	65	9
Asian other	69	12	75	18
Black	58	7	68	10
Black African	62	8	70	11
Black Caribbean	49	4	61	6
Black other	56	5	67	9
Chinese	78	23	85	33
Mixed	62	9	69	13
Mixed White/Asian	69	13	75	18
Mixed White/Black African	61	8	70	11
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	52	5	62	8
Mixed other	65	11	72	15
White	60	8	68	11
White British	61	8	69	11
White Irish	65	12	75	17
Gypsy/Roma	15	1	20	0
Irish Traveller	22	0	23	0
White other	57	8	65	11
Other	57	8	64	10
Unknown	49	7	56	10

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary

The data shows that:

• in every ethnic group, girls had a higher attainment than boys at the expected and higher standards, with the exception of White Gypsy/Roma and White Irish Traveler pupils at the higher standard
• overall, 68% of girls met the expected standard compared with 61% of boys, and 12% of girls met the higher standard compared with 8% of boys
• girls from the Chinese ethnic group had the highest attainment amongst boys and girls of all ethnic groups, with 85% meeting the expected standard and 33% meeting the higher standard
• White Gypsy/Roma boys had the lowest attainment amongst boys and girls of all ethnic groups, with 15% meeting the expected standard
• the largest gap between boys and girls within the expected standard was found among Black Caribbean pupils, with 61% of girls meeting the expected standard compared to 49% of boys – a gap of 12 percentage points
• the largest gap between boys and girls within the higher standard was found among Chinese pupils, with 33% of girls meeting the higher standard compared to 23% of boys – a gap of 10 percentage points

5. By ethnicity and area

• Location: England
• Time period: 2017/18
• Source: Key stage 2 statistics

	All		Asian		Black		Chinese		Mixed		White
Local Authority	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number
Barking and Dagenham	67	2,270	75	515	69	760	86	6	66	175	60	761
Barnet	73	2,901	79	345	66	329	91	50	70	288	75	1,589
Barnsley	65	1,760	71	12	68	15	100	4	72	38	64	1,672
Bath and North East Somerset	66	1,256	64	18	33	4	57	4	63	63	67	1,156
Bedford	48	971	48	151	42	54	86	6	48	96	49	647
Bexley	70	2,231	86	216	75	455	97	29	69	161	66	1,321
Birmingham	61	9,524	63	3,607	60	1,230	77	50	59	786	59	3,253
Blackburn with Darwen	66	1,427	68	677	64	21	100	5	66	42	64	677
Blackpool	62	1,018	71	22	100	5	78	7	60	33	61	947
Bolton	66	2,478	68	605	56	127	92	12	72	110	66	1,587
Bournemouth	67	1,112	88	60	74	14	75	9	68	73	66	934
Bracknell Forest	64	874	74	63	63	29	100	3	67	56	63	714
Bradford	61	4,639	63	2,055	58	70	67	2	59	244	59	2,160
Brent	63	2,309	68	711	59	553	83	5	62	159	66	635
Brighton and Hove	67	1,768	65	60	57	30	91	10	66	196	68	1,418
Bristol, City of	63	2,922	55	210	51	288	85	22	59	215	67	2,150
Bromley	75	2,736	82	160	70	235	76	22	77	313	75	1,939
Buckinghamshire	66	4,051	69	703	59	98	80	16	64	288	66	2,882
Bury	64	1,465	52	177	59	33	80	4	61	72	66	1,152
Calderdale	62	1,622	62	250	63	10	0	0	54	51	62	1,296
Cambridgeshire	61	4,156	68	189	52	44	95	37	67	242	61	3,576
Camden	72	1,087	71	221	66	219	100	7	77	131	73	432
Central Bedfordshire	62	2,046	71	60	56	51	85	11	61	129	62	1,770
Cheshire East	68	2,735	72	51	53	10	73	11	73	115	68	2,519
Cheshire West and Chester	64	2,422	64	38	53	8	73	11	72	79	63	2,274
City of London	72	21	40	2	50	1	N/A*	N/A*	67	2	80	12
Cornwall	61	3,524	67	18	83	5	78	7	66	79	61	3,378
County Durham	68	3,766	80	28	44	7	77	10	79	56	68	3,638
Coventry	62	2,583	71	584	61	333	73	11	61	178	59	1,431
Croydon	67	3,006	76	542	64	864	87	20	68	450	66	1,038
Cumbria	65	3,318	81	29	43	3	79	11	65	41	65	3,194
Darlington	65	800	76	22	80	4	100	3	52	15	65	750
Derby	60	1,942	66	382	64	89	73	11	68	187	58	1,242
Derbyshire	64	5,257	68	63	58	18	73	19	63	142	64	4,977
Devon	64	4,999	77	33	44	7	86	12	73	131	64	4,747
Doncaster	60	2,114	62	64	47	21	88	14	60	62	61	1,929
Dorset	60	2,586	65	24	64	9	78	7	68	104	59	2,420
Dudley	58	2,108	62	266	53	49	60	6	56	130	58	1,618
Ealing	68	2,789	71	856	59	385	80	12	70	271	71	843
East Riding of Yorkshire	64	2,280	71	10	50	1	50	1	72	48	64	2,206
East Sussex	64	3,411	78	94	50	17	75	9	62	152	64	3,085
Enfield	65	2,864	76	298	63	708	83	20	68	295	62	1,321
Essex	66	10,557	85	379	71	379	88	64	66	518	64	8,998
Gateshead	71	1,479	61	23	79	27	69	9	58	19	71	1,348
Gloucestershire	63	4,100	72	144	57	51	54	7	60	193	63	3,644
Greenwich	70	2,282	82	200	74	863	83	35	69	230	65	882
Hackney	71	1,782	77	238	68	619	80	16	68	175	72	610
Halton	63	927	100	3	75	3	N/A*	N/A*	75	30	63	881
Hammersmith and Fulham	74	995	80	72	69	246	100	2	76	134	78	415
Hampshire	68	9,850	77	323	61	108	92	46	71	403	68	8,876
Haringey	66	2,035	74	131	59	485	74	29	75	242	68	1,010
Harrow	73	2,012	77	1,039	66	194	100	14	73	150	70	515
Hartlepool	67	754	78	21	100	2	50	2	75	9	66	718
Havering	70	2,080	78	159	71	248	94	16	73	128	69	1,496
Herefordshire, County of	68	1,279	86	6	0	0	67	2	63	27	68	1,234
Hertfordshire	67	9,084	76	798	62	366	85	57	69	688	66	7,038
Hillingdon	66	2,434	73	740	62	250	60	6	68	310	62	923
Hounslow	70	2,065	78	711	64	240	100	17	71	179	66	675
Isle of Wight	54	717	67	12	0	0	75	3	71	27	54	672
Isles of Scilly	56	19	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	0	0	58	19
Islington	69	1,280	74	111	60	264	100	10	71	206	71	600
Kensington and Chelsea	76	728	76	28	70	112	100	4	74	131	80	295
Kent	67	11,557	80	512	72	311	90	43	69	637	66	9,855
Kingston upon Hull, City of	67	2,093	85	39	56	35	83	5	65	85	67	1,875
Kingston upon Thames	71	1,265	75	229	52	30	92	23	73	120	71	754
Kirklees	62	3,251	61	873	55	62	67	8	52	179	63	2,091
Knowsley	62	1,058	86	38	94	15	80	4	68	27	61	971
Lambeth	70	2,075	75	105	64	829	80	12	74	311	75	687
Lancashire	65	8,830	63	1,013	61	43	82	27	62	278	65	7,413
Leeds	61	5,457	59	638	53	353	91	50	59	309	63	3,985
Leicester	62	2,788	68	1,293	59	288	100	13	58	183	56	901
Leicestershire	66	4,940	72	417	69	55	84	27	60	208	65	4,185
Lewisham	69	2,317	74	187	65	855	82	37	68	323	71	783
Lincolnshire	60	4,620	86	60	60	21	81	13	59	139	60	4,339
Liverpool	62	3,038	69	121	64	158	76	55	66	164	61	2,436
Luton	59	1,830	61	880	57	196	50	2	62	155	58	573
Manchester	62	4,097	60	914	65	796	74	39	64	357	63	1,718
Medway	63	2,042	76	112	74	151	100	9	71	159	61	1,578
Merton	69	1,595	75	411	62	211	84	16	69	164	69	751
Middlesbrough	64	1,147	70	123	53	17	100	2	72	63	64	923
Milton Keynes	65	2,281	79	348	63	362	86	18	67	186	62	1,322
Newcastle upon Tyne	70	1,932	69	283	69	98	79	19	77	89	69	1,390
Newham	76	3,483	78	1,643	76	835	93	13	78	225	70	536
Norfolk	59	5,222	72	84	59	51	60	18	62	161	59	4,835
North East Lincolnshire	65	1,241	79	11	100	5	100	2	70	40	65	1,169
North Lincolnshire	65	1,278	72	55	29	2	N/A*	N/A*	65	32	65	1,170
North Somerset	64	1,529	58	15	50	4	75	3	64	49	64	1,446
North Tyneside	68	1,520	73	44	70	19	100	7	65	40	68	1,403
North Yorkshire	62	3,634	74	64	40	8	67	8	64	94	62	3,429
Northamptonshire	61	5,488	66	277	58	274	93	26	62	312	61	4,555
Northumberland	65	2,162	74	40	100	6	50	1	74	40	64	2,066
Nottingham	62	2,141	68	401	63	236	82	14	58	263	61	1,160
Nottinghamshire	65	5,889	71	193	61	55	72	28	65	280	65	5,288
Oldham	63	2,103	58	671	69	75	86	6	64	93	65	1,229
Oxfordshire	63	4,472	63	257	60	103	80	20	61	268	64	3,729
Peterborough	54	1,497	55	280	59	66	67	4	51	84	54	1,022
Plymouth	63	1,801	69	22	54	15	81	13	59	51	63	1,667
Poole	61	860	76	28	33	3	N/A*	N/A*	55	36	62	784
Portsmouth	57	1,209	72	106	68	46	60	6	48	46	56	976
Reading	60	984	67	218	58	98	80	4	57	99	58	539
Redbridge	71	2,774	74	1,538	63	278	89	17	69	236	70	639
Redcar and Cleveland	71	1,123	67	6	67	2	N/A*	N/A*	69	22	71	1,087
Richmond upon Thames	81	1,717	76	128	66	43	94	15	82	180	82	1,293
Rochdale	60	1,753	56	406	57	69	80	4	59	87	62	1,162
Rotherham	62	2,005	70	183	60	32	75	3	60	55	61	1,713
Rutland	66	260	80	4	0	0	100	1	86	12	66	241
Salford	65	1,858	78	70	72	109	86	6	71	153	64	1,448
Sandwell	61	2,624	67	871	63	277	77	10	57	209	57	1,193
Sefton	67	1,943	77	27	82	9	67	2	73	44	67	1,841
Sheffield	62	3,797	67	506	60	232	79	22	61	275	62	2,631
Shropshire	63	1,864	88	22	40	2	67	4	58	45	63	1,763
Slough	69	1,557	78	845	64	124	100	1	60	125	58	384
Solihull	66	1,753	72	210	67	36	100	6	63	147	65	1,327
Somerset	62	3,452	69	45	71	15	68	13	63	90	62	3,267
South Gloucestershire	63	1,981	79	88	59	30	75	9	66	107	63	1,726
South Tyneside	68	1,094	63	38	80	8	50	1	67	22	68	1,010
Southampton	66	1,707	67	216	61	56	67	8	69	121	66	1,282
Southend-on-Sea	69	1,440	80	117	74	67	75	9	64	83	68	1,130
Southwark	69	2,168	74	128	65	902	72	28	71	243	75	678
St. Helens	63	1,281	56	14	36	4	80	4	60	25	63	1,226
Staffordshire	65	6,098	63	246	70	51	79	19	63	192	65	5,547
Stockport	67	2,227	72	167	48	22	72	13	69	134	66	1,853
Stockton-on-Tees	71	1,694	70	83	74	25	91	10	65	36	70	1,526
Stoke-on-Trent	58	1,802	56	271	63	64	76	13	57	87	59	1,347
Suffolk	61	4,685	73	106	57	35	89	8	64	286	60	4,153
Sunderland	68	2,176	68	97	74	20	62	8	70	35	68	2,008
Surrey	70	8,440	74	639	62	119	93	52	71	507	69	6,966
Sutton	74	1,699	88	378	73	131	89	25	76	167	70	958
Swindon	63	1,763	71	212	61	54	78	7	63	99	63	1,378
Tameside	64	1,778	61	205	61	38	42	5	64	79	64	1,425
Telford and Wrekin	67	1,491	74	94	58	49	100	7	74	93	66	1,244
Thurrock	66	1,554	79	95	77	286	88	14	65	90	62	1,017
Torbay	63	869	69	11	67	2	100	5	68	30	62	813
Tower Hamlets	72	2,324	73	1,514	64	228	95	18	66	135	72	333
Trafford	76	2,213	82	348	75	93	95	36	76	158	74	1,498
Wakefield	60	2,315	55	93	60	28	82	9	65	84	60	2,081
Walsall	61	2,200	68	589	62	115	84	16	63	140	59	1,312
Waltham Forest	70	2,264	73	642	66	418	89	33	72	253	70	839
Wandsworth	71	1,719	72	314	61	364	100	11	70	218	77	747
Warrington	71	1,792	79	56	57	8	75	9	75	51	71	1,655
Warwickshire	67	4,073	77	262	55	46	100	18	70	194	67	3,504
West Berkshire	64	1,130	76	51	55	11	63	5	74	67	63	982
West Sussex	62	5,413	68	290	51	71	71	15	66	273	61	4,673
Westminster	72	1,024	73	165	70	168	81	21	78	122	76	275
Wigan	70	2,495	76	42	65	24	75	9	65	53	70	2,344
Wiltshire	63	3,267	77	61	49	29	56	5	65	116	63	2,982
Windsor and Maidenhead	69	1,040	69	161	64	9	86	6	64	81	69	761
Wirral	60	2,269	70	80	71	12	88	15	64	75	60	2,069
Wokingham	72	1,421	85	233	66	43	90	18	68	85	70	1,028
Wolverhampton	65	2,121	74	551	63	259	100	7	60	227	63	1,042
Worcestershire	61	3,797	59	142	54	14	90	9	64	145	61	3,448
York	66	1,254	75	30	67	8	89	8	62	32	66	1,161

^* Not applicable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary

Figures broken down by ethnicity and local authority are often based on small numbers of pupils. As a result, they are likely to change from year to year. The Isle of Scilly had 19 pupils in year 6, and the City of London had 21. Please treat the results for these 2 local authorities with particular caution.

The data shows that:

• in 2017/18, 81% of pupils in Richmond Upon Thames met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, the highest percentage out of all local authorities
• 48% of pupils in Bedford met the expected standard, the lowest percentage out of all local authorities

6. Methodology

The key stage 2 datasets combine information from the following two data sources:

• prior attainment records (key stage 1 results)
• school census records

Key stage assessment data received from the Standard Testing Agency (STA) is matched to school census records to identify pupils’ ethnicities and free school meal eligibility.

Pupils with no valid result for a subject are excluded from the calculations for that subject and are not included in the number of eligible pupils or the outcome percentages for that subject.

Valid results 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

Some pupils are eligible for free school meals (FSM) if their parents receive a qualifying benefit. We refer to these children as ‘FSM-eligible’. FSM eligibility is used as an indicator of disadvantage. However, not all eligible parents apply for FSM and some families who do not reach the eligibility threshold may still be experiencing deprivation.

We refer to pupils who are not eligible for FSM or where eligibility is unknown as ‘non-FSM’.

In 2017/18, 15% of pupils in year 6 (the final year of key stage 2) were known to be eligible for free school meals.

The Department for Education no longer suppress any of the data used in this page.

Rounding

Percentages given in charts, tables and downloads are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Related publications

Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2018.

Quality and methodology information

7. Data sources

Source

Key stage 2 statistics

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Education

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

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

8. Download the data

KS2 RWM Local Authority - Spreadsheet (csv) 189 KB

RWM attainment for key stage 2 - Spreadsheet (csv) 48 KB

Publication release date: 4 June 2019

Updated: 19 September 2019

full page history

1. 19 September 2019 Updated to include data broken down by ethnicity and area (local authority).
2. 4 June 2019 Updated with the latest available data (for 2017/18).

From: Department for Education

Previous editions:

1. 14 May 2019
2. 5 March 2018

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