You don't achieve high levels of academic success by "hot housing" students and training them to pass tests; nor can you "fatten a pig by simply weighing it".

We believe that our nations current obsession with educational targets, standards and assessment is damaging, sometimes abusive, and this is something which we attempt to minimise wherever we can.

The fact is that we have maintained outstanding academic standards over many, many years and this is achieved by widening our curriculum as much as we possibly can so that children have huge levels of participation in often marginalised areas, such as art, music and sport.

Above all else we aim to cherish and promote a creative approach to everything we do.   

Our end of Key Stage 2 SAT results are listed below and they have been compared to national results.

As you can see our results have been consistently good for a number of years. The results are above the national average and we are particularly pleased that they not only show a good standard of achievement at the end of Key Stage 2 but also that our children progress very well during their time at our school.

These results are a great credit to the children’s hard work and I think they should be feeling very proud of both their efforts and achievements.

This said, and on the back of a series of excellent results, I would like to say that in my view SAT results are only a single, and very narrow, way of judging a school.

When considering how well the children are doing, and how we are doing as a school I hope that parents will consider a great range of things beyond SAT results.

We do our very best to offer a broad and balanced curriculum and beyond this as big a range of extra curricular activities as we can.

We hope that we are helping all of our children to develop and mature in a great range of ways beyond the narrow range of skills measured by SATs.

Summer 2024

Key Stage 2 Data:

Our results are significantly higher than national averages.

Especially where “all subjects combined” in concerned.

Children performing at a level which is above national expectations (Greater Depth) is significantly higher than national averages published last year and this will almost certainly be the case again next year.

The pass rate for all subjects combined is 19% higher than national results which is very significant. 

It is worth noting that the national averages for passing reading, writing and maths has crept slightly above the “floor threshold” (60%), which is considered the minimum expected standard for schools, for the first time in many years.

When SEND is taken out of the equation there remain no boy / girl divides.

Pupils eligible for Pupil Premium (9 pupils):

Pupil Premium pass results are broadly the same as children not in the Pupil Premium Group.

Less children in this group attain greater depth in writing and maths.

Pupils with SEND (6 pupils):

Results are broadly the same as national averages.

Data Trends 2022 – 2024

The following table shows our school’s three year average in comparison to national averages over this period and as can be seen our results are clearly well above average.

The following relates to a post-covid recovery “World”.

The results speak for themselves and because they are a three year average (of around 100 children) they are very reliable statistically.

Our last inspection in Autumn 2023 informed us that “outcomes don’t matter” and that our governors had an overinflated opinion of the school.

We are very proud of the way in which we have enabled to maintain the standards that our children achieve in these core areas, especially in the light of the enormous disruption from covid that schools nationally have struggled to address.

We reject the ridiculous conclusions of the unfair inspection that we were forced to endure entirely, and this year’s end of school results only serve to strengthen this stance.

Statutory Phonics Testing has taken place in Year One:

This is once again higher than national averages.

Phonics is a vital skill, and these results are a testament to the levels of support we have put in place and the hard work of our Year One team.

At the end of 2022/23 86% of our Year One children passed this statutory test.

In the previous year, 2021/22, 84% of our children passed the test.

The national average over the past three years is 78%.

Our average over the same period is 85% which is a variance of +7% in favour of school.

The fact that our results have been consistently above national averages is something we are very proud of, especially in a context where Torridge is considered one of the most deprived areas in Britain, where pre-school provision is at best “haphazard”  and where entry data to Reception is very poor each year.

The unreasonable demand from ofsted that we adopt a compliant scheme has wasted resources of towards £20,000.

Our staff have undertaken this with commitment and a very positive approach and this is a huge credit to them, however the question has to be asked – is the huge amount of financial and staff-time resources which have been directed to this going to achieve anything that we weren’t already achieving?

Time will tell ….

Summer 2023

Key Stage 2 Data - Summer 2023

Our results are significantly higher than national averages, other than in the area of writing where they are only slightly higher.

This is especially where “all subjects combined” is concerned.

Children performing at a level which is above national expectations (Greater Depth) is significantly higher than national averages in reading and SPAG

It is worth noting that the national averages for passing reading, writing and maths has dropped below the “floor threshold” (60%) which is considered the minimum expected standard for schools.

The above should be taken in the context of 24% of pupils in this group who were on our special educational needs register.

Pupils with SEND (8 pupils):

Other than in the case of writing results are broadly the same as national averages.

Writing is explained by a high proportion of children who were dyslexic.

When SEND is taken out of the equation there remain no boy / girl divides.

Pupils in the Pupil Premium Group (7 Pupils or 21%)

57% of children in the pupil premium group were also in our Pupils with SEND Group.

Analysis of the data shows no significant difference between children in this group and the cohorts as a whole, however the results are skewed by special educational needs. 

Summer 2022

Our results are significantly higher than national averages in every area.

There are no significant differences between the group as a whole and other groups such as boys, girls and those on pupil premium.

Summer 2021

Trend Data

In 2016 the demands of the primary curriculum were increased and achieving the required standard became more difficult because thresholds were significantly raised.

Prior to this Level 4 was a good level of achievement and Level 5 a higher level.

From 2016 children were judged as either “meeting the standard” or not, and in comparison with previous arrangements this equated to Level 5, and perhaps a very high Level 4 score (what we might have judged 4a).

Throughout these various periods national “pass marks” for Level 4 and Greater, and for “Meeting the Standard” have averaged about 74%. 

Value Added Scores (discontinued in 2016):

One point of difference is considered significant.

Summer 2020

End of KS2 SATs have not been carried out this year because of COVID-19.

The following data is based on the children’s progress though Year Six to the start of “lockdown” and upon teacher assessments. These assessments are based on our current children’s performance and additionally on historical school data which allows for an accurate extrapolation of progress from “mid-year-monitoring” in February, to achieved SAT results in May.

• National averages for children passing SATs have averaged about 74% over the years.
• Children working at greater depth have averaged about 17% over the years.
• There are no boy / girl issues this year.
• Pupil Premium attainment is in line with the attainment of the rest of the group.
• Children who have been on the SEN Register would not normally be expected to pass these tests and have made exceptional progress.
• The small size of this class means that analysis of Pupil Premium and SEN children is not statistically reliable.

Summer 2019

The three year average for reading, writing and maths combined is 64% because of a nasty skew caused by very poor results in writing in 2017. This is still in line with national averages for all three subjects.

These figures relate to 100 which is the national average. One point is considered to be significant, so plus or minus one point is considered to be within the average range.

LA means Local Authority which is all state funded primary schools in the Devon Area.

Non-Mobile means the children who have been in our school since Year Two, as opposed to those who have joined us at any point since. These figures are in comparison to school data, rather than national averages.

For example, in reading children who have been in the school since Year Two (at least) have done 1.9 points better than children joining us at some point since Year Two.

Our progress data is better than national and local authority averages, despite the skew caused by very poor writing data in 2017.

Summer 2018

Achieving the required standard at the end of KS2 in Year Six: 

Working above the required standard at the end of KS2 in Year Six:

Summer 2017

All of the above provides an indication that our children are achieving above national averages, when they leave our school to transfer to secondary school when they are eleven.

The data indicates generally good progress from a very low base.

This cohort’s baseline score (on entry to Reception) was the lowest we’ve ever recorded. Their level of attainment at the end of KS 1 was heavily criticised by Ofsted at their last inspection.

Given this context their progress across KS2, to levels better than national averages, is very satisfying.

It remains to be seen how this will be reflected in Raise as the removal of Levels and the constant changes to thresholds is hardly an ideal vehicle for comparison.

Writing standards, which are based on teacher assessments, were very low this year at only 53 %.

This was due to over-zealous moderation in a context where for the first time children were expected to achieve every aspect of the assessment criteria, rather than the best fit scenario that we had in the past, and have again this year.

This is the third change to the assessment criteria for writing in three years and this is not a useful basis for assessment of such an important area.

Clearly the effect of moderation will not be felt by the 75% of schools who were not able to “benefit” form moderation in Summer 2017.

Comparisons with previous years are very unreliable because of significant changes to the thresholds (pass / fail) for each subject.

Summer 2016

Summer 2015

Value Added Score -  102.4

Summer 2014

Value Added Score - 100.9

Summer 2013

Value Added Score - 101.5

Summer 2012

Value Added Score -  101.3

Summer 2011

Value Added Score -  102.5

Summer 2010

Value Added Score -  101.1

Summer 2009

Value Added Score -  102.1

Summer 2008

Value Added Score -  101.2

Summer 2007

Summer 2006

Summer 2005