Writing attainments for children aged 10 to 11 (key stage 2)

Published 24 August 2018

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• overall, in 2016/17, 76% of pupils met the expected standard in writing by the end of key stage 2 (when they are usually aged 10 or 11 years), and 18% met the higher standard
• pupils from the Chinese ethnic group were most likely out of all ethnic groups to meet both the expected standard (jointly with pupils from the Indian ethnic group) and the higher standard
• Gypsy/Roma pupils were least likely out of all ethnic groups to meet both the expected standard, and the higher standard (jointly with Irish Traveller pupils)
• pupils from the Chinese ethnic group made the most progress in writing between key stage 1 and key stage 2, while Irish Traveller pupils made the least progress
• within every ethnic group, girls were more likely than boys to meet both the expected and the higher standards in writing
• the local authorities with the highest percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard were the City of London (where 92% did so) and Kensington and Chelsea (86%); the data for the City of London is based on small numbers of pupils and is therefore highly variable over time

Things you need to know

In 2016/17, there were 599,061 pupils in key stage 2 at state-funded schools in England in year 6 (the final year of key stage 2), and ethnicity was known for 593,776 (99%) of them.

Of those whose ethnicity was known, 75% were White, 11% were Asian, 6% were Black, 6% were Mixed, 2% belonged to the Other ethnic group and 0.4% were Chinese.

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 result for a particular subject are excluded from the total. For more about valid results, see the Methodology section.

What the data measures

This data measures the writing attainment of children at the end of key stage 2 (year 6) when children are aged 10 to 11 years.

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

Standards in writing are divided into 2 categories:

• expected standard – to meet this, pupils must have been assessed as ‘working at the expected standard’ or ‘working at a greater depth within the expected standard’
• higher standard – to meet this, pupils must have been assessed as ‘working at a greater depth within the expected standard’

The progress score measures the progress that pupils make between the end of key stage 1 (primary school year 2) and the end of key stage 2 (year 6). A pupil’s results are compared with the actual achievements of other pupils nationally with similar key stage 1 attainment.

This data shows an average progress score for each ethnic group. 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:

Asian/Asian British:

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

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British:

• Black African
• Black Caribbean
• Other Black background

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

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. Writing attainment for children aged 10 to 11 by ethnicity

• Location: England
• Time period: 2016/17
• Source: Key stage 2 statistics

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected and higher standards in writing, and progress score, by ethnicity

Ethnicity	Expected standard	Higher standard	Progress score
All	76	18	0.0
Asian	80	19	1.0
Bangladeshi	81	20	1.6
Indian	85	26	1.2
Pakistani	75	13	0.7
Asian other	81	23	1.1
Black	77	16	0.8
Black African	79	18	1.2
Black Caribbean	72	12	-0.2
Black other	75	15	0.7
Chinese	85	34	1.9
Mixed	78	19	0.2
Mixed White/Asian	82	25	0.5
Mixed White/Black African	77	18	0.4
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	73	14	-0.5
Mixed other	79	21	0.6
White	76	18	-0.3
White British	77	18	-0.4
White Irish	80	23	0.2
White Irish Traveller	36	2	-0.8
White Gypsy/Roma	31	2	-0.4
White other	70	16	1.6
Other	72	15	1.4

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Writing attainments for children aged 10 to 11 (key stage 2) Writing attainment for children aged 10 to 11 by ethnicity Summary

The data shows that:

• overall, in 2016/17, 76% of pupils met the expected standard in writing by the end of key stage 2 (when they are usually aged 10 to 11 years), and 18% met the higher standard
• 85% of pupils from the Chinese and Indian ethnic groups met the expected standard in writing, and 34% of pupils from the Chinese ethnic group met the higher standard (the highest percentages of any ethnic group)
• 31% of Gypsy/Roma pupils met the expected standard in writing and 2% of both Gypsy/Roma and Irish Traveller pupils met the higher standard (the lowest percentages of any ethnic group)
• between key stage 1 and key stage 2, pupils from the Chinese ethnic group made the most progress in writing, with a progress score of 1.9 points; Irish Traveller pupils made the least progress, with a progress score of -0.8 points

3. Writing attainment for children aged 10 to 11 by ethnicity and area

• Location: England
• Time period: 2016/17
• Source: Key stage 2 statistics

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

Local authority	All	Asian	Black	Chinese	Mixed	White
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Barking and Dagenham	76	84	80		74	71
Barnet	79	84	73	91	79	81
Barnsley	76		57	N/A*	86	76
Bath and North East Somerset	76	79	54		74	76
Bedford	71	72	69		72	71
Bexley	80	88	83		79	78
Birmingham	73	75	72	80	73	71
Blackburn with Darwen	76	79	64		76	75
Blackpool	77	76			86	77
Bolton	77	81	67		82	76
Bournemouth	80	93		100	80	79
Bracknell Forest	72	85	84		78	71
Bradford	74	78	69	67	70	72
Brent	75	78	73		73	77
Brighton and Hove	78	71	83	80	79	79
Bristol, City of	77	79	71		73	77
Bromley	84	90	83		87	84
Buckinghamshire	76	77	72		72	76
Bury	77	74	73	100	72	78
Calderdale	70	65	57		72	71
Cambridgeshire	73	72	62	93	75	73
Camden	78	78	75		78	78
Central Bedfordshire	74	81	81		74	74
Cheshire East	76	86			80	75
Cheshire West and Chester	74	82	63		78	74
City of London	92			N/A*
Cornwall	76	78			84	76
County Durham	79	85	70	100	82	79
Coventry	77	84	78	100	75	75
Croydon	78	83	76		79	77
Cumbria	77	87	57		86	77
Darlington	76	90			89	75
Derby	73	77	78		76	71
Derbyshire	76	80	79	76	77	76
Devon	76	93	57	70	76	76
Doncaster	74	80	72		79	73
Dorset	72	72		77	77	72
Dudley	74	75	64		73	74
Ealing	78	80	73	100	76	81
East Riding of Yorkshire	78				82	78
East Sussex	75	77	67		81	75
Enfield	78	88	78	100	82	76
Essex	78	89	81	83	80	78
Gateshead	82	80	83	100	90	82
Gloucestershire	74	78	62	78	72	74
Greenwich	83	91	85	100	82	79
Hackney	85	89	83		87	85
Halton	72				82	72
Hammersmith and Fulham	81	78	81		84	79
Hampshire	81	91	83	87	83	80
Haringey	81	89	78	79	83	81
Harrow	83	88	75		84	79
Hartlepool	81	82				81
Havering	85	88	91	82	84	84
Herefordshire, County of	76	100			79	76
Hertfordshire	79	85	80	86	80	79
Hillingdon	78	85	73		80	75
Hounslow	82	86	77		85	78
Isle of Wight	72	77			78	72
Isles of Scilly	41	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	N/A*	41
Islington	80	87	76		82	80
Kensington and Chelsea	86	81	81	100	87	86
Kent	81	92	84	87	85	80
Kingston upon Hull, City of	77	84	62		90	77
Kingston upon Thames	77	76	70		80	78
Kirklees	74	76	62		66	75
Knowsley	71	86		N/A*	78	71
Lambeth	83	87	81	83	84	83
Lancashire	77	79	71	86	78	77
Leeds	70	72	67	88	67	71
Leicester	75	82	79		74	66
Leicestershire	77	84	78	86	79	77
Lewisham	78	86	77	89	81	76
Lincolnshire	73	95	86	84	85	73
Liverpool	71	78	72	88	75	71
Luton	72	71	74		78	72
Manchester	75	77	78	76	75	73
Medway	76	89	86		74	75
Merton	76	83	75		76	72
Middlesbrough	76	75	75	N/A*	67	76
Milton Keynes	78	87	78		80	75
Newcastle upon Tyne	78	80	87	83	82	77
Newham	84	86	85	100	84	76
Norfolk	75	90	68	88	76	74
North East Lincolnshire	79	80			92	79
North Lincolnshire	78	90	54		86	78
North Somerset	76	88	75	100	78	76
North Tyneside	80	90	86		89	80
North Yorkshire	75	79	81	82	81	75
Northamptonshire	75	79	74	86	75	75
Northumberland	77	87			78	77
Nottingham	74	77	76	78	76	72
Nottinghamshire	78	79	68	91	76	78
Oldham	74	72	81		73	75
Oxfordshire	74	77	69		78	74
Peterborough	68	73	67		74	67
Plymouth	75	100	58	75	85	75
Poole	76	91			80	76
Portsmouth	74	83	85	33	77	73
Reading	76	81	78		71	76
Redbridge	81	84	76	78	82	79
Redcar and Cleveland	81		N/A*		86	80
Richmond upon Thames	84	83	68	75	84	85
Rochdale	76	78	69		84	75
Rotherham	77	78	79		84	77
Rutland	80	100				79
Salford	77	94	76		76	77
Sandwell	75	82	71		75	72
Sefton	77	89	77	63	78	77
Sheffield	77	82	76		74	77
Shropshire	76	82			84	76
Slough	81	86	83		78	72
Solihull	78	85	73		72	77
Somerset	75	82	60		76	75
South Gloucestershire	78	88	76	100	75	78
South Tyneside	82	87			88	82
Southampton	78	82	82		78	78
Southend-on-Sea	79	88	90		82	78
Southwark	78	83	77	82	79	80
St. Helens	77				78	76
Staffordshire	78	82	79	83	78	78
Stockport	77	78	71	81	78	77
Stockton-on-Tees	80	86	85		89	79
Stoke-on-Trent	72	73	72	62	78	72
Suffolk	74	85	83	57	77	74
Sunderland	81	78		100	80	81
Surrey	79	84	73	84	83	78
Sutton	83	94	87	85	83	80
Swindon	77	82	80		76	76
Tameside	77	77	57	70	79	78
Telford and Wrekin	77	77	76		78	77
Thurrock	79	84	87		75	76
Torbay	75				77	75
Tower Hamlets	82	84	79	78	78	73
Trafford	83	89	79	92	86	82
Wakefield	74	73	73	64	75	74
Walsall	74	80	72		73	72
Waltham Forest	82	84	81		81	81
Wandsworth	83	84	78		81	85
Warrington	82	91		100	82	81
Warwickshire	78	91	75	83	83	77
West Berkshire	75	80	86		79	74
West Sussex	69	75	61	81	76	68
Westminster	80	83	80	100	83	81
Wigan	79	88	81		80	79
Wiltshire	75	86	61		76	75
Windsor and Maidenhead	77	81	71		81	76
Wirral	74	82	100		85	73
Wokingham	82	91	86		81	80
Wolverhampton	78	85	84		75	75
Worcestershire	74	74	81	100	75	74
York	76	70	75		77	76

^* Not applicable Data withheld to protect confidentiality

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Writing attainments for children aged 10 to 11 (key stage 2) Writing attainment for children aged 10 to 11 by ethnicity and area Summary

Except for the information for White pupils, the statistics quoted for attainment by ethnicity and local authority are often based on small numbers of pupils and are therefore highly variable over time. The number of pupils from different ethnic groups varies considerably between local authorities, and data isn't published for some local authorities where the number of pupils is 5 or fewer. For these reasons, you should avoid comparing differences in attainment between local authorities.

The Isle of Scilly had 17 pupils in year 6, and the City of London had 26 – results for these local authorities are particularly variable, and any comparisons with them are not recommended.

The data shows that:

• in 2016/17, 92% of pupils in the City of London local authority met the expected standard in writing by the end of key stage 2 – this was the highest percentage out of all local authorities, followed by Kensington and Chelsea (also in London), where 86% of pupils met the standard
• 100% of Asian pupils met the expected standard in County of Herefordshire (West Midlands), Plymouth (South West) and Rutland (East Midlands), while 65% did so in Calderdale (Yorkshire and the Humber) – these were the highest and lowest percentages of Asian pupils meeting the standard out of all local authorities
• 100% of Black pupils met the expected standard in Wirral in the North West, while 54% did so in North Lincolnshire (Yorkshire and The Humber) and Bath and North East Somerset (South West)
• 100% of Chinese pupils met the expected standard in 16 local authorities (out of the 63 local authorities for which data was available), while 33% did so in Portsmouth (South East)
• 92% of pupils with Mixed ethnicity met the expected standard in North East Lincolnshire (Yorkshire and The Humber), while 66% did so in Kirklees (also Yorkshire and The Humber)
• 86% of White pupils in Kensington and Chelsea (London) met the expected standard, while 41% did so in the Isles of Scilly (South West)

4. Writing attainment for children aged 10 to 11 by ethnicity and gender

• Location: England
• Time period: 2016/17
• Source: Key stage 2 statistics

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

	Boys			Girls
Ethnicity	Boys Expected standard	Boys Higher standard	Boys Progress score	Girls Expected standard	Girls Higher standard	Girls Progress score
All	70	13	-0.8	82	23	0.8
Asian	75	14	0.4	85	24	1.7
Bangladeshi	76	14	1.0	86	26	2.3
Indian	82	20	0.6	89	32	1.8
Pakistani	69	9	0.1	81	17	1.4
Asian other	77	18	0.6	85	28	1.7
Black	71	12	0.2	83	21	1.5
Black African	73	14	0.6	84	22	1.7
Black Caribbean	64	8	-1.0	80	16	0.7
Black other	69	10	-0.1	81	21	1.6
Chinese	80	27	1.2	90	40	2.6
Mixed	72	14	-0.6	84	25	1.1
Mixed White/Asian	77	19	-0.2	87	31	1.3
Mixed White/Black African	71	13	-0.6	83	23	1.2
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	65	9	-1.5	81	18	0.6
Mixed other	74	15	-0.2	85	26	1.5
White	70	13	-1.1	82	22	0.6
White British	70	13	-1.2	83	23	0.5
White Irish	74	18	-0.7	85	29	1.2
White Irish Traveller	27		-2.5	45		0.9
White Gypsy/Roma	24	1	-1.7	38	2	0.7
White other	65	12	0.9	76	20	2.4
Other	67	12	0.7	78	19	2.2

Data withheld to protect confidentiality

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Writing attainments for children aged 10 to 11 (key stage 2) Writing attainment for children aged 10 to 11 by ethnicity and gender Summary

The data shows that:

• overall, in 2016/17, 82% of girls and 70% of boys met the expected standard in writing by the end of key stage 2 (when they are aged 10 to 11 years), while 23% of girls and 13% of boys met the higher standard; girls were more likely to meet the expected and higher standards than boys in every ethnic group
• overall, girls made above average progress in writing between key stage 1 and key stage 2 (with a progress score of 0.8 points), while boys made below average progress (with a progress score of -0.8 points); this pattern was seen in every ethnic group
• 90% of girls from the Chinese ethnic group met the expected standard and 40% met the higher standard, the highest percentages in any ethnic group across boys and girls; Chinese girls also made the most progress between key stage 1 and key stage 2, with a progress score of 2.6 points
• 24% of Gypsy/Roma boys met the expected standard, the lowest percentage in any ethnic group across boys and girls
• Traveller of Irish Heritage boys made the least progress between key stage 1 and key stage 2, with a progress score of -2.5 points

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 75% 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.

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

Confidence intervals:

Confidence intervals are available for the ‘progress score’ if you download the data. These confidence intervals 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, it is best to interpret these school scores alongside their associated confidence intervals.

A 95% confidence interval around progress scores 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 are interpreted alongside their associated confidence intervals in the following manner: 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.

Changes to assessment:

Because of a change in the way pupils are assessed, data published before 2016 is not comparable to 2015/16 and 2016/17 data.

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

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.

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).

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

Percentages given in charts, tables and downloads are rounded to the nearest whole number. Progress scores are given to 1 decimal place.

Related publications

Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2017

Quality and methodology information

6. Data sources

Source

Key stage 2 statistics

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Education

Note on corrections or updates

The Department for Education (DfE) published an updated version of these statistics on 25 January 2018.

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.

7. Download the data

Writing attainments for children aged 10 to 11 (key stage 2) -national - Spreadsheet (csv) 88 KB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_Type, Time, Time_Type, Geography (England), Geography_Code, Gender, Value, Value_Type, Denominator, Lower_CI, Upper_CI.

Writing attainments for children aged 10 to 11 (key stage 2) -local authorities - Spreadsheet (csv) 324 KB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_Type, Time, Time_Type, Region, Local_Authority, Local_Authority_Code, Value, Value_Type, Denominator.

Publication release date: 24 August 2018

full page history

1. 24 August 2018 Updated to include new data (for 2016/17)

From: Department for Education

Previous edition:

1. 5 March 2018

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