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Jim Knight - More Progress Needed at 14
Dated: 11/08/2008
Jim Knight - More Progress Needed at 14
- Key Stage 3 provisional national results published –
- Need to build on progress in writing and maths –
Schools Minister Jim Knight today congratulated pupils and teachers on their hard work in this year’s Key Stage 3 tests for 14-year-olds.
Commenting on the provisional national results published today, Mr Knight welcomed the rises in the proportion of young people reaching the expected levels in writing and maths – reversing last year’s falls and back up to their highest ever levels.
He also welcomed improvements in the pupil results at the highest achievement levels, particularly maths.
But he said he was disappointed with the small fall in reading, which dropped two percentage points (ppts) this year, after a rise in 2007, and science, which dropped two ppts after three years of increases.
He said that although there had been a decade of overall steady improvement, the Government’s reforms need to deliver faster progress – through the new more flexible Key Stage 3 curriculum; through helping all children have a smoother transition from primary to secondary school; and through encouraging them to continue the reading habit into their teenage years.
Mr Knight said: “I congratulate pupils and teachers for all their hard work this year. Schools’ efforts mean that they are sustaining the significant improvements of the last decade - there are far fewer children below the expected level than 10 years ago and the brightest pupils are continuing to show good results, particularly in maths.
“Key Stage 3 is an important stepping stone to success at further study and life beyond the classroom. It is encouraging that most pupils are achieving at or above the expected standard for their age in all three subjects and almost a third are now achieving the highest levels in maths.
“But I am disappointed by the slight drops in English and science – reversing the rises of last year. We know there is more to do before all of our schools are truly world class and that every young person is reaching their full potential at age 14 and beyond.
“The reforms we set out in the Children’s Plan will accelerate the pace of improvement. We are giving schools the tools they need - massive investment in support for teachers; more support for children’s wider needs; and the new secondary curriculum starting next month, which will give them real flexibility over how they teach and the confidence to intervene earlier to give support to the right children, at the right time, in the right way.”
Reading and Writing Today’s figures show a different story to provisional figures for Key Stage 2 published last week – which showed falls in writing and improvements in reading for the proportion of 11-year-olds reaching expected levels for their age.
Mr Knight said: "Today’s figures show that secondary school teachers have rightly been focussing on improving young people’s writing skills.
“We know there are always risks of children’s learning stalling when they move from primary to secondary school – as some struggle to adapt to a fuller curriculum or don’t feel emotionally or socially ready for a bigger school. Jim Rose’s review of the primary curriculum is specifically looking at how we can ease this transition.
"We saw last week that 11-year-olds are leaving primary school as confident readers but too many are behind in writing. They are catching up in the first years of secondary school to be proficient writers ready for their GCSE courses from 14. But this can be at the expense of progress in their reading.
"We know that as children get older their interest in books can wane, as they gain more independence and are surrounded by more distractions, such as the internet, television and socialising with friends. This is despite more excellent new fiction for teenagers.
“It is essential to teenagers’ academic progress that they continue to read for pleasure outside school. Reading should be fun and something children choose to do in their free time – otherwise, they will struggle when they move on to tackling more technically demanding texts in secondary schools. Reading for pleasure is at the heart of our high profile initiatives like Boys into Books and the National Year of Reading.
“Parents have a vital role to play - reading and talking about stories together as children move towards secondary school and encouraging them to read everything from novels to magazines as they get older. This will give children real confidence and will help reading to be as much apart of their lives, as going to the shops or meeting their friends.”
The headline provisional results from this year’s Key Stage 3 tests for 14-year-olds show:
Year on Year
English
- Overall proportion achieving expected levels for their age at level five+ has dropped slightly by one ppt to 73%
- Overall proportions achieving higher than expected levels – at level six+ have improved in writing by 2 ppts to 36% and in reading by 1 ppts to 33%
- Eight out of 10 girls achieved level five+, compared to 66% of boys
- 41% of girls achieved higher than expected level six+, compared to 26% of boys
- Boys’ level 5+ reading dropped three ppts but went up two ppts in writing; girls dropped two ppts in reading but went up two ppts in writing
- However, boys achieving levels 6+ reading rose one ppt to 26% and three ppts in writing to 30% with girls seeing a two ppts increase in reading to 41% and four ppts in writing to 44%
Maths
- Overall proportion achieving level five or more is up one ppt to 77%, back up to 2006-levels after a fall last year
- Level six+ has also risen one ppt to 57% - back up to 2006-levels - the highest ever level
- Over half of 14 year olds are now achieving above the standard expected for their age in maths
Science
- Overall proportion achieving level five+ has dropped two ppts to 71%
- Level six+ remains stable for the second year running at 41%
- Boys achieving level 5+ has stayed level on 72% but girls have dropped two ppts to 71%
Since 1997
English
- Overall proportion achieving level 5+ is 16 ppts up since 1997; meaning 95 thousand more pupils achieving expected levels
- Overall level 6+ proportion achieving level 6+ is 9 ppts up since 1997 meaning 54,000 more pupils exceeding expected levels
Maths
- Overall proportion achieving level 5+ is 17 ppts up since 1997 meaning 100,000 more pupils achieving expected levels
- Overall level 6+ proportion achieving level 6+ is 20 ppts since 1997 meaning 121,000 more pupils exceeding expected levels
Science
- Overall proportion achieving level five+ is 11 ppts up since 1997 meaning 68,000 more pupils achieving expected levels
- Overall proportion achieving level six+ is 12 ppts up since 1997 meaning 73,000 more pupils exceeding expected levels
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