9:30am Thursday 2nd September 2010
By Rhianne Pope
ONE in five seven-year-olds is not meeting the expected levels of writing as Oxfordshire’s Key Stage One results fell this year.
Only 79 per cent of the 6,600 pupils at 236 schools who took their tests reached the Government’s Level Two or above guidelines for writing – below the national average and a fall of one percentage point on last year.
And it emerged that more than one in four boys met the Government standard, compared to just 14 per cent of girls.
Results also fell by one percentage point in maths (to 89 per cent) and science (91 per cent), while reading stayed the same at 84 per cent.
Yesterday, Oxfordshire County Council, the local education authority, refused to discuss the decline.
Experts advised parents to take the results as an opportunity to help their children with their reading and writing at a crucial age.
George Dugdale, policy adviser at the National Literacy Trust, said: “Parents should not overreact to the assessment but instead see it as an opportunity to inspire and support their children to enjoy reading at home.”
Teachers in Oxfordshire warned parents not to read too much into the tests when children were at such a young age.
Brenda Williams, secretary of the Oxfordshire National Union of Teachers branch and a teacher at Larkrise Primary School in East Oxford, said: “The rationale of creating an average is that there will always be a certain number of pupils above the average and a certain number below it. People see these stark statistics and interpretations are made, but they deny individual achievement.”
Terry Cowley’s son Tyrese Rodney took the tests last term.
Tyrese attends St John Fisher Catholic Primary School in Littlemore and has been in their learning programme because he was slightly behind in his reading.
His mum, 40, said it was classes like this that made a difference and she did not need the statistics to show how her son was doing.
She said: “Personally, I think he is too young and shouldn’t have to take exams while he’s in primary school.
“Teacher observations are far more useful, as they are with the children all year round and have more of an idea of where they are.”
The national averages were 85 per cent in reading, 81 per cent in writing, 89 per cent in maths and 89 per cent in science.
Oxfordshire children also fared worse than pupils in neighbouring counties like Buckinghamshire.
Across the South East, 86 per cent scored the benchmark in reading, 83 per cent in writing, 91 per cent in maths and 91 per cent in science.
Dr Diane Purkiss, who teaches English language and literature at Keble College, Oxford, said schools should be concentrating on teaching reading through phonics rather than whole words.
Spokesman Louise Mendonça said: “Nationally there has been no increase in seven-year-old pupils attaining at Level Two or above and here in Oxfordshire we have remained broadly in line with the national figures for these teacher-assessed tests.”
Michael Waine, left, the council’s cabinet member for schools improvement, also would not comment further.
Email Mr Waine at michael.waine@oxfordshire.gov.uk
WRITING: Pupils are expected to use appropriate and interesting vocabulary and sentences, often with capital lettters and full stops. Letters should be accurately drawn and the same size.
Simple monosyllabic words should be usually spelt correctly, but where mistakes are made, alternative spellings should be plausible.This includes being able to spell simple numbers, the months,
the difference between knight and night and quite and quiet, and long and short vowel sounds such as steep and step.
READING: Pupils should be able to understand simple texts and express opinions about major events in stories.
MATHS: Pupils should be able to count to 100 and do simple mental arithmetic, use mathematical language, symbols and simple diagrams and explain why an answer is correct.
SCIENCE: Children should use simple equipment and make relevant observations, comparing objects, living things and events. They should understand the things that animals and plants need to survive, and about growth and reproduction.
They can identify common materials and describe similarities and differences between them.
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