Responding to today’s primary school results, Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:
“Although shifting goal posts make it difficult for us to tell if standards have improved this year, it is still seriously concerning to see that barely a third of pupils eligible for free school meals reached the government’s expected level by the end of primary school. What is even more worrying is that this group are making slower progress than their classmates of similar ability
“The 21 percentage point gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their better-off classmates tells us that there is still work to do if all children, regardless of their family background, are to start secondary school with good standards of literacy and numeracy
“We are beginning to get a clearer idea of ‘what works’ when it comes to supporting disadvantaged pupils. The next challenge is finding ways to share this knowledge across an increasingly complex system, including through greater collaboration between schools. Our £10m Campaign in the North East on improving primary school literacy is one way in which we are working to do this – and we are investing more in building the capacity of the system to offer evidence-based support, for example through our new network of Research Schools.”