Understanding primary school league tables

There are several different places where you can view primary school league tables, each of which shows slightly different information.

The Government’s Find and Compare Schools Service is the main place to look, and includes the most comprehensive set of data.

Key Stage 2 SATs results are a key performance measure for primary schools.

League tables show the percentage of KS2 (Year 6) pupils who reached the expected standard in three formally assessed areas combined: reading, writing and maths.

In 2018, 67% of children nationally reached the expected standard in all three areas. League tables also show the local authority average.

In addition, the tables show the average score achieved by pupils in reading and maths, compared to the national average and local authority average.

In 2018, the national average score in reading was 105, and in maths was 104.

These measures allow you to compare a school’s SATs results with other schools locally and nationally.

As well as showing the percentage of pupils who reach the expected standard in KS2, league tables show the percentage who exceed it in reading, writing and maths combined.

In 2018, 10% of children nationally were exceeding the expected standard for KS2.

Again, league tables show each school’s results alongside the national average and local authority average.

Progress scores show how pupils have progressed from the end of KS1 (Year 2) to the end of KS2, compared to other children nationally.

To make the comparison fairer, they measure children’s KS2 results against pupils who had similar levels of attainment at the end of KS1.

Progress scores are important because they take into account the different starting points of pupils. For example, children in a school with poor KS1 results and average KS2 results may have made more progress than pupils in a school with outstanding results who also excelled at the end of KS1.  

Progress scores are a fairer measure than simply comparing SATs results like for like, because they take into account children’s prior ability and how much they’ve improved.

Here’s how they work.

First, each child is put into an attainment group based on their KS1 results. This is done by giving them a points score, with equal weighting for English and maths.

Next, each child’s KS2 attainment is identified based on their SATs results.

The third step is to calculate each pupil’s progress score: the difference between their actual KS2 result and the average result of the children in their attainment group. Individual children’s progress scores are NOT reported in league tables,

Finally, the data for all pupils is combined to create a school progress score. The progress scores of all children in Year 6 are added together and divided by the total number of children in the year to give the average.

Most schools will get a progress score of between -5 and +5, with 0 being the centre point.

• A score of 0 means that on average, pupils in the school do about as well in KS2 as those with similar prior attainment nationally.
• A positive score means pupils do better in KS2 than those with similar prior attainment nationally.
• A negative score means pupils do worse in KS2 than those with similar prior attainment nationally.

Bear in mind that a score below 0 doesn’t mean that pupils didn’t make any progress: it just means they made less progress than other children nationally with similar starting points.

Progress scores are reported separately for each area formally assessed in KS2: reading, writing and maths.

Schools are placed into bandings based on their progress scores. For example, the bandings for reading in 2018 were as follows:

• Well above average: progress score of 3.2 or higher. About 10% of schools.
• Above average: progress score of between 0 and 3.2. About 10% of schools.
• Average: progress score of 0. About 64% of schools.
• Below average: schools with a progress score between 0 and -2.7. About 6% of schools.
• Well below average: progress score below -2.7. About 9% of schools.

Primary school league tables show each school’s most recent Ofsted rating: outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate.

This can give you a snapshot of how a school is performing, but it’s important to read the report for yourself to get the bigger picture.