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Summary

Pupils’ average attainment often varies depending on their level of disadvantage. It can be seen at both
pupil level (based on pupil premium status) and school level (based on free school meal eligibility), that children in these groups have lower attainment than their peers. These children also saw the largest changes in attainment during the course of the pandemic – both the largest decline and subsequent growth. Despite improvement in attainment in all three subjects between autumn 2021 and autumn 2022, as well as in the post-pandemic period (spring 2021 to spring 2022), the disadvantage gap remains substantial and children who are eligible for pupil premium and in schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage have consistently lower standardised scores than their peers. It appears that pandemic related school closures may have increased the disadvantage gap as it has grown with respect to its pre-pandemic size.

Key findings

The key findings from this paper are split into two sections: attainment results from autumn 2022, and
the change in attainment over the course of the pandemic.

Attainment in autumn 2022

• In grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) pupils in all primary year groups remain roughly 2 months behind the pre-pandemic cohort.
• Between autumn 2021 and autumn 2022 there was little change in Key Stage 2 pupils’ average attainment level in reading and maths. This suggests children in upper Key Stage 2 may have caught up to pre-pandemic attainment levels while children in Key Stage 1 and lower Key Stage 2 (who were in Key Stage 1 at the beginning of the pandemic) may still be catching up.
• The disadvantage gap between children eligible for the pupil premium and their peers in GPS has reduced relative to 2021. However, it remains wider than prior to the pandemic in 2019.
• For both reading and maths, the disadvantage gap between children eligible for the pupil premium and their peers has, on average, widened for Year 6 pupils each autumn since 2020. Further support for children eligible for the pupil premium may be required to assist with closing the gap at this crucial juncture of their schooling.

Change in attainment over time

• Over the course of the spring terms from spring 2019 to spring 2022, two thirds of pupils stayed in the same performance indicator band in all three subjects. For these children their attainment while transitioning between year groups (eg: Year 1 to Year 2) remained constant.
• For all three subjects:

1. During the pre-pandemic period (spring 2019–spring 2020) attainment declined for a higher proportion of children attending schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage than at other schools.
2. In the mid-pandemic period (spring 2020–spring 2021) there was in increase in the proportion of children whose attainment declined at all types of school. However, the largest declines were seen by children attending schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage.
3. By the post-pandemic period (spring 2021–spring 2022) there was an increase in the proportion of children whose attainment increase in all types of school. However, a much higher proportion of children attending schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage increased their attainment compared to children at other schools.

• The mean standardised score of children at schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage was lower than their peers’ in spring 2019 for all three subjects.
• The mean standardised score of children at schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage remained lower than their peers in spring 2022 for all three subjects. Children attending schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage had larger decreases in attainment than their peers between spring 2019 and spring 2022, indicating that the attainment of this group of children was more affected by pandemic school closures than their peers. Additional support may be required at schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage to assist children with their post–pandemic recovery.