White Papers

Main Public Output: the longer-term impact of COVID-19 on pupil attainment and wellbeing

A longitudinal analysis of the impact of school closures due to COVID-19 on children's attainment and wellbeing.

Key findings include:

- Children in all primary year groups remain behind pre-pandemic levels in grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS)

- Children in Key Stage 1 are approximately 1 month behind in reading and maths

- Children in Key Stage 2 have likely caught up to pre-pandemic levels in reading and maths

- Children at schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage saw a larger fluctuation in attainment than their peers over the course of the pandemic

- The disadvantage gap between children eligible for pupil premium funding and their peers remains large

- Children who were starting Year 3 in autumn 2020 and autumn 2021 had larger decreases in academic wellbeing than any other year group in Key Stage 2

- The majority of children in Key Stage 2 reported some vulnerability in self-efficacy in the 2021-22 school year

- There is some evidence that children's positivity and self-efficacy may impact their attainment at Key Stage 2

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We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

2023 white paper: the ongoing impact of school closures on children from disadvantaged backgrounds

An analysis of attainment in autumn 2022 and change in attainment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic among pupils in mainstream state primary schools in England.

Key findings include:

- Pupils in all primary year groups are still behind pre-pandemic levels in grammar, punctuation and spelling.

- The disadvantage gap between children eligible for pupil premium and their peers in GPS is wider than pre-pandemic.

- The disadvantage gap between children eligible for pupil premium and their peers for reading and maths has widened for Year 6 pupils each autumn since 2020.

- Children at schools with high levels of in-school disadvantage saw a larger fluctuation in attainment than their peers over the course of the pandemic.

Read the full report

This research has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation

Join the conversation! #rsawhitepaper23

You can find us on Twitter @RSAssessment

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

Wellbeing white paper 2022: academic wellbeing and attitudes to learning of Key Stage 2 pupils following the pandemic

An analysis of academic wellbeing and attitudes to learning in Key Stage 2 pupils at mainstream state schools in England. This study looks at the differences in performance by year group, gender, disadvantage and region.

Key findings include:

- Academic wellbeing has dropped across all dimensions (positivity, motivation, resilience, and self-efficacy) since the pre-pandemic period.

- Pupils in Year 3 have seen the largest reductions in wellbeing.

- The majority of children now feel some vulnerability in self-efficacy.

- Across all year groups, girls feel more positive than boys.

- Across all year groups, boys reported feeling greater self-efficacy than girls.

- Pupils in the North of England gave more satisfactory responses across all dimensions of academic wellbeing.

Read the full report

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This research has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation 

In collaboration with Nottingham Trent University.

Join in the conversation! #WellbeingWhitePaper22

You can find us on Twitter @RSAssessment

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

2022 white paper: residual impact of educational disruption on primary school attainment by spring 2022

An analysis of attainment in reading, maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling in mainstream state schools in England. This study looks at the differences in performance by year group and region.

Key findings include:

- Children in all school years still behind pre-pandemic levels in grammar, punctuation and spelling

- Key Stage 2 pupils back on track for reading

- Key Stage 1 pupils remain most impacted by school disruption

- Disadvantage gap in maths remains for all school years

Read the full report

This research has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation 

Join in the conversation! #rsawhitepaper22

You can find us on Twitter @RSAssessment

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

2021 white paper: effects of educational disruption on primary school attainment in summer 2021

An analysis of attainment in reading, maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling in mainstream state schools in England. This study looks at the impact on performance of deprivation levels, location, subject and year group.

Key findings include:

- Reading attainment close to prior cohort for Years 2 to 6 by the end of the academic year

- In maths and GPS the gaps in attainment for most year groups were smaller at the end of the summer term

- Years 1 and 2 showed the largest drops in attainment

- The gap in average attainment between those eligible for Pupil Premium and their peers continued to grow

- Had the National Tests been held this year it is likely only reading would have had a similar number of pupils reaching the expected standard

Read the full report

Join in the conversation! #rsawhitepaper21

You can find us on Twitter @RSAssessment

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

2021 white paper: The impact of school closures on spring 2021 attainment

Mainstream state schools in England show declines in attainment across all years in reading, maths and grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS). By the end of spring 2021, year-on-year declines in attainment are higher than those previously seen at the end of autumn 2020.

Key findings include:

- Substantial drops in attainment between spring 2020 and 2021 across all subjects and year groups

- GPS and maths showed the largest declines, with an average of three months' progress across all year groups

- Years 1 and 2 showed bigger reductions in attainment than older year groups

- Children attending schools in more deprived areas showed greater declines in attainment than their peers

Read the full report

Join in the conversation! #rsawhitepaper21

You can find us on Twitter @RSAssessment

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

2021 white paper: The impact of school closures on autumn 2020 attainment

Mainstream state schools show measurable declines in attainment between 2019 and 2020 across all years in reading, maths and GPS. This study looks at the impact on performance of deprivation, location, subject and year group.

Key findings include: 

- Primary pupils in England are more than 1 month behind in reading and maths and 2 months behind in GPS

- Pupil premium eligible children are now 6 months behind their peers

- High economic deprivation primary schools have been affected twice as badly

- Younger years have been impacted more than older age groups

- Scores have dropped most steeply for schools in the midlands and north

Read the full report

Join in the conversation! #rsawhitepaper21

You can find us on Twitter @RSAssessment

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

2020 white paper. The impact of lockdown on children's education: a nationwide analysis

Mainstream state schools show substantial reductions in attainment between 2019 and 2020 and not all pupils appear to have been affected equally. This study looks at the impact of deprivation levels, location, subject and year group on performance. 

Key findings include: 

- Younger year groups show bigger reductions in attainment than older year groups

- Children eligible for the Pupil Premium show larger average declines than those who are not

- Schools with higher levels of deprivation, situated in urban areas or located in the north or midlands, show greater declines

- Differences were seen between topics within the same subject

Read the full report

Join in the conversation! #rsawhitepaper20

You can find us on Twitter @RSAssessment

We have put together a list of white paper FAQs, click here to read them

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

2019 white paper: Attainment trends in primary grammar, punctuation and spelling, reading and maths

Research into more than three million test results in grammar, punctuation and spelling, reading and maths has revealed differences in performance by age, gender, season of birth and background:

- Punctuation becomes increasingly tricky for boys

- Girls outperform boys in all areas of reading

- Boys steadily overtake girls in maths

Read the full report

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk

2018 white paper: The effects of age, gender and school type on primary maths and reading attainment

A substantial proportion of primary schools in England are now using the PUMA (Progress in Understanding Mathematics Assessment) and PiRA (Progress in Reading Assessment) tests and entering test results into MARK (My Assessment and Reporting Kit), a free online marksheet and reporting service for customers of the tests.

RS Assessment from Hodder Education have worked with SchoolDash to provide high-level analysis of over one and a half million anonymous termly standardised test results from the MARK database, which is summarised in this paper.

Read the full report

We welcome your feedback, please do not hesitate to email assessment@hodder.co.uk