UK Edition
Eleven-year-olds who speak English as a second language have overtaken their classmates in reading, writing and maths results for the first time.
Only 58 per cent of English native speakers at the end of primary school met the expected overall standard in reading, writing and maths in the last academic year, compared with 60 per cent of pupils whose first language isn’t English.
The findings come after a record overall drop in Sats results for pupils in England in the wake of the pandemic.
However, in the first exams taken since 2019, results for English pupils fell more sharply than those of pupils from immigrant families or whose first language isn’t English.
Figures released by the Department for Education show a seven percentage point drop in English pupils achieving the expected standard, compared with a four percentage point fall for pupils who are not native English speakers.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment, said the results reflected the “ambition” of immigrant families and the varying levels of support given to children during Covid-19 lockdowns.
He said: “Many people from a non-traditional English background have come to this country full of ambition and determined that their children should do well. So they would have ensured their children were following what the school was asking them to do, but also feeding in help themselves.”
He added: “We British tend to take it all a bit for granted and the temptation to do other things [during pandemic lockdowns] may have become too great.
“In England, we’ve got a bit complacent because there’s very strong welfare support. There’s a feeling that you can do your own thing and society will look after you and it isn’t necessary to apply yourself to your education to actually get on in life.”
Indian pupils were the highest achieving of any ethnic group, with 74 per cent meeting the expected overall standard in reading, maths and writing, followed by Chinese pupils at 70 per cent. The proportion of white British pupils meeting the expected standard was 65 per cent. The lowest-achieving ethnic group was gipsy pupils, with only 15 per cent meeting standards.
A larger proportion – eight per cent – of pupils from immigrant families achieved a higher standard overall for reading, writing and maths, compared with seven per cent of English pupils. In 2019, the two groups were a joint 11 per cent achieving the higher standard.
Writing skills were equal
Pupils with a foreign first language overtook English pupils in maths, with 75 per cent meeting the expected standard compared with 71 per cent of domestic pupils.
Writing skills were equal between both groups, with 70 per cent meeting the expected standard. In reading, English pupils were slightly better, with 75 per cent meeting standards, compared with 73 per cent for pupils with a foreign first language.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said the evidence that pupils from immigrant families had not fallen as far behind as their English classmates was “likely to be driven by more support and motivation for learning and education in the home”.
He added: “During the pandemic these home-learning divides will have widened.”
The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and others, which had narrowed in the eight years before the pandemic, has widened to its biggest gap since 2012. The Government said the data suggested that “disruption to learning during the pandemic has had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils”.
The DfE said: "Although we are seeing children make encouraging progress, we recognise there is still more to do particularly for the most disadvantaged and in writing and maths.
"Unlike GCSE and A-level exams, we did not adapt the Key Stage 2 assessments for pupils in 2022, and the expected standards in the assessments have remained the same as in 2019.
"This data provides an important baseline as we work towards our ambitious target of 90 per cent of children leaving primary school with the expected standards in reading, writing and maths by 2030.”