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Introduction

This paper analyses attainment tests among primary pupils in England for the Spring term of the 2021-2022 school year. These tests include New Progress in Reading Assessment (New PIRA), New Progress in Understanding Mathematics Assessment (New PUMA) and Progress in Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Assessment (GAPS), provided by RS Assessment from Hodder Education.

The paper uses aggregate results from more than 700,000 primary school tests taken at more than 1,500 schools during spring 2022 and compares these to the results from the corresponding terms in the previous school year (spring 2021). Encouragingly, these results are now showing trends of improvement after a long period of educational disruption. To provide context for these results and show how pupils performed prior to the pandemic, analysis from the spring 2021 white paper (which compares results from ‘old’ PIRA tests taken in spring 2021 and spring 2020) is also presented here. Although these tests are similar, and allow for comparisons in overall trends, New PIRA and New PUMA were both updated and re-standardised to reflect current teaching practices, which means that, in some cases, a direct comparison of results is not appropriate. GAPS remains unchanged in this period. Please see appendix (page 19) for a detailed explanation.

To provide increased comparability effect sizes are used to compare attainment levels between different groups and across time periods. The larger the negative change in effect size, the larger the attainment gap and effect on learning is likely to be. The analysis focuses on the continuing impact of school disruption, changes in attainment and the different impact on attainment across regions in England.

The analysis of attainment test results at a national level provides a valuable opportunity to understand broad disparities in learning, and helps to direct the focus of educators and policymakers in their remediation efforts. We acknowledge that attainment tests are only one measure of a child’s development and intend this analysis to be considered alongside other research in this area, not least the impact on children’s social development, wellbeing and mental health.

This paper is the latest in the series, the last of which was published in August 2021. That paper, “The effects of educational disruption on primary school attainment in summer 2021”, highlighted the gaps in attainment across all terms in 2020-2021, however by the summer term they were most prominent in maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) and among children in Year 1 and Reception. 

The work presented in this paper has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Key findings

While the changes to New PIRA and New PUMA tests mean that it is not possible to make exact calculations about children’s attainment gains, our analysis shows it is possible to identify trends that are consistent across this period for reading (see appendix on page 19 for further details). As the maths tests saw more changes than reading, the analysis presented for that subject focuses on the post-pandemic changes in attainment only. Further analysis of attainment in maths will be presented in a future paper.

In spring 2021, average attainment across all subjects was lower than pre-pandemic levels, as it followed a national lockdown. Comparing that spring 2021 cohort with the current spring 2022 cohort, across all subjects, average attainment gains from spring 2021 to spring 2022 were substantial, however we now see that: 

• There are still sizeable attainment shortfalls across all year groups in grammar, punctuation and spelling. 
• Attainment in reading for Year 3-6 pupils had returned almost to pre-pandemic levels. 
• Reading in Years 1 and 2 has been particularly negatively impacted by school closures and pupils in these years re still behind pre-pandemic attainment levels. 
• The gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers were smaller in spring 2022 compared to spring 2021. The difference between the attainment of pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium and the attainment of their peers (the disadvantage gap) still appears to be larger than it was pre-pandemic, in reading and GPS. 
• All English regions showed improved attainment between spring 2021 and spring 2022, but were nevertheless differently affected. For example, Year 1 and 2 pupils attending schools in the North showed the least improvement in reading. Pupils across all primary school years (Years 1-6) in the Midlands showed lower average improvement in maths than their peers in other regions.

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