Roughly half of pupils are in schools which have used the KS1 optional End of KS1 assessment framework materials.
End of KS1 assessments became non-statutory from the 2023/24 academic year onwards. The first cohort to take the statutory Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) had reached the end of KS1 and KS1 assessments were no longer need to create Value Added measures for this and future cohorts at Key Stage 2.
Whilst this change means that there is no statutory requirement to carry out end of key stage 1 (KS1) teacher assessment, the DfE chose to continue to give schools the option to use now non-statutory KS1 teacher assessment framework materials.
Given the widespread criticism of the Y2 End of KS1 assessment framework prior to its withdrawal by many in the profession (here, here and here), how have schools responded to the end of the statutory requirement to assess Year 2 pupils using KS1 teacher assessment framework materials?
Survey Data
Insight sponsors a series of Data in Schools Conferences, at which attendees were asked the following question during the 2023/24 academic year:
Whilst the number of each survey was relatively low (~50), the results were largely consistent. With the notable exception of schools in London, most were expecting to use the optional SATs materials in Summer 2024.
In April 2024, Schools Week reported that, based on a Freedom of Information request, just 7 per cent of primary schools opted out of receiving KS1 papers. Teacher Tapp, the online daily survey app, found that 60% of respondents reported that they were expecting to continue with KS1 SATs in Summer 2024.
In the same month, TES reported that a majority of schools (71%) were intending to run KS1 SATs. Of these 71%, 33% said they would carry out the assessment as in previous years, with 28% saying that they would run the assessments at a different point.
At Insight, we have regularly tracked the number of schools entering KS1 Assessments in order to create an estimate of the percentage of students reaching the national standard.
In 2022-23, we found that every Y2 pupil in Insight had both a Phonics Screening Check score (from assessments taken in either Y1 or Y2) and a statutory Key Stage 1 Teacher Assessment (a ‘KS1 Score’). This was the same for Year 2 pupils in Insight in 2021-22 and 2018-19 (pre-C19 pandemic).
The picture for 2023-24 is quite different. This year, just 48.6% of Year 2 pupils in Insight were recorded as having a (now non-statutory) Key Stage 1 Teacher Assessment.
This indicates that roughly half of pupils are in schools which have used the KS1 optional End of KS1 assessment framework materials. Whilst there is a possibility that Insight schools may be different in some way to non-Insight schools, we think this gives us a good indication of the national picture: In the first year the KS1 assessment framework became non-statutory, schools were split right down the middle as to whether to use the materials or not.
(This piece is included as part of the Insight Inform launch report published on 7th September. We have also released our first Insight Inform podcast introducing Insight Inform, the new information service from Insight).
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