Monthly Archives: September 2022

“It is so easy to be wrong – and to persist in being wrong – when the costs of being wrong are paid by others.” Thomas Sowell Why do we buy so much flat pack furniture? First, it’s many times … Continue reading →

In this blogpost, we’re going to return to the question of the extent to which pupils left mainstream schools during the pandemic, which we began to look at here. This might happen for one of the following reasons: moves to … Continue reading →

Earlier this month the DfE published provisional Key Stage 2 attainment statistics. The big story was the widening of the disadvantage gap, which we dug into a little here. Today we’re going to look at the relationship between attainment and … Continue reading →

Take a read of this passage, entitled ‘An Encounter at Sea’, from the 2017 reading comprehension SATs paper. Can you predict what happens next? What did you predict? Did you assume the ‘encounter’ was a dolphin (noting their mention in … Continue reading →

What do you assume are the skills of a successful art and design pupil? Perhaps you consider an understanding of perspective and proportion, colour and tone, or knowledge of different media, all deployed with creativity. We know pupils must do … Continue reading →

*Update 8th September 10.22. We have updated the tables to correct errors in original calculations. This doesn’t affect any findings* Yesterday’s provisional Key Stage 2 statistics showed a worrying increase in the disadvantage gap index since the start of the … Continue reading →

A new school year begins, full of old routines and new challenges. It is only natural to seek out novel ideas to start the year afresh, but we should be wary they are not at the expense of long-held priorities … Continue reading →

To coincide with making available reports from the 2022 Key Stage 4 Early Results Service, we’re publishing some headline Key Stage 4 indicators for 2022. This is based on data provided by 1,700 state-funded secondary schools. All bar 30 are … Continue reading →