Wolverhampton students surpassing national average in Key Stage 2 performance
Students in Wolverhampton have outperformed the national average in this year's Key Stage 2 assessments despite their studies being disrupted due to Covid-19.
Provisional data showed 75.2 per cent of children in the city reached the expected standard in reading, compared to 74 per cent across England as a whole.
A total of 69.3 per cent of pupils reached the standard in writing and 71.8 per cent did so in maths, compared to a national average of 69 per cent and 71 per cent.
Councillor Chris Burden, Wolverhampton Council's cabinet member for education, skills and work, said: "This is a very good performance by our Year 6 pupils, who were arguably among the hardest hit by the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic over the last two years – and it's great to see that children in Wolverhampton are now performing above the national average in all Key Stage 2 subject areas.
"To put that into context, the last time similar data was produced before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, our pupils were above national average in writing but below in the other subjects, so this is a very admirable achievement indeed.
"And while overall performance both locally and nationally has dipped slightly since 2019, which is a direct result of the impact of the pandemic on learning, the decline in Wolverhampton is much less marked than the England average and, in fact, performance by our pupils in reading has even improved since then.
"So overall this is very good news for the city and testimony to the hard work of schools, children and families in what have been very difficult circumstances over the last couple of years. It is also testimony to the work of the council in supporting schools to improve, and in challenging where performance is below where it ought to be.”
The news comes after separate figures showed that 88 per cent of schools in Wolverhampton with a current Ofsted judgement are now rated Good or Outstanding by inspectors. That is up from 79 per cent five years ago and puts Wolverhampton above both the regional and the national average in this measure.
Councillor Burden added: "We are determined to continue on this journey of improvement and, over the coming months and years, we anticipate that even more schools will become Good or Outstanding, and that outcomes for pupils will continue to get better."
