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title: KS2 for secondary schools
description: KS2 for secondary schools | Help & Support — GO 4 Schools
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# KS2 for secondary schools
The end of key stage 2 (KS2) data forms the baseline for measuring value added progress for secondary schools in England through the Progress 8 accountability measure.
**What you need to know about Key stage 2**
A student achieving a scaled score of 100 is known as ‘Secondary ready’ and this is the benchmark for students to attain within the tests. Alongside the test scores primary teacher assessments used in English Writing included the terminology:
- ‘Expected standard’ or EXS for students achieving the secondary ready standard.
- Students below 100 were WTS ‘working towards standard’,
- Students achieving a score of 110+ were labelled ‘Greater depth’ or ‘GDS’.
For most pupils their scores range between 80 and 120. However, there are scenarios where a pupil can get a 'nominal' scaled score of less than 80. Pupils below the standard of the test at KS2 received teacher assessment outcomes which are converted into nominal points to sit below the scaled score range for the purposes of including them in the prior attainment measures (high, middle, low prior attainment bands and Progress 8).
**Uploading KS2 scaled scores into GO 4 Schools**
The KS2 SATs results are published early in July following the tests in primary schools and are available for secondary schools from ‘Get information about Pupils – GIAP’, formerly ‘Key2success’. When the students are showing in GO 4 Schools the scaled scores can be uploaded via Curriculum \> Grade types \> Actual grades.
As the KS2 results are an external data set they must be uploaded in the academic year they were achieved by the student, so the year the students sat the test. This data will remain with the student throughout their time at school. Results must be uploaded for ‘KS 2 English Reading Scaled Score’ and ‘KS 2 Maths Scaled Score’. The average of these subjects will be used for the Progress 8 calculation and the prior attainment groups. Scaled score results from the GPS test can also be uploaded for additional information.
Further specific details for uploading actual grades can be found **[here](https://support.go4schools.com/modular/uploading-actual-grades)**.
When the KS2 data is successfully added to GO 4 Schools there are several outputs that can be used to support in school tracking and analysis.
**Prior attainment**
A student’s prior attainment at KS2 is calculated as the average of their scaled scores in English reading and maths. The DfE has published the criteria for the prior attainment groups based on scaled scores:
**Within this statistical release the categories are calculated in the following way:**
- **Low prior attainers have an average scaled score (average of their English reading and maths scaled scores) of below 100.**
- **Middle prior attainers have an average scaled score greater than or equal to 100 but less than 110.**
- **High prior attainers have an average scaled score greater than or equal to 110.**
The scaled scores were part of a more rigorous curriculum that raised the expectations of young people’s mastery of literacy and numeracy. Further detail on the changes are [here](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-primary-school-tests-show-schools-rising-to-the-challenge). The impact of this change is to alter the distribution of the number of pupils in each prior attainment category.
In 2020/21,
- 15.4% of the KS4 cohort, with both KS2 and KS4 results available, were in the higher KS2 prior attainment group compared with 42.8% in 2019/20.
- The size of the middle KS2 prior attainment group has grown from 45.7% in 2019/20 to 52.4% in 2020/21.
- Consequently, the percentage of pupils in the low KS2 prior attainment group is much higher, 32.2% in 2020/21 compared with 11.4% in 2019/20.
It is important to remember that the curriculum content taught to students changed as well as the SATs, so pre-2016 NC level outcomes for students are not a direct comparison to the scaled score outcomes of students based on the updated curriculum. Secondary schools also must consider the transitioning of students from the primary to the secondary phase requires careful planning, accounting for the changes to the primary curriculum and to avoid a transitional dip in student progress, thus ensuring the core curriculum offers challenge.
**System attribute - auto-populated prior attainment bands**
When the KS2 scaled score data is uploaded into GO 4 Schools via the actual grade type, a system student attribute will auto populate the prior attainment bands for the school, set for use for the analysis of attainment.
Using the average of English reading and maths, each student will be assigned the values HPA, MPA, or LPA.
If the data for only one subject is available, then this will be used to assign the prior attainment; students with no scaled score uploaded will remain blank.
To remove the prior attainment data the scaled scores will need to be removed. If a new student joins the school their KS2 scaled scores can be uploaded and added to the data.
**Special attribute – Prior attainment (KS2) (legacy)**
The special attribute that required schools to upload the prior attainment bands will remain as some schools have used external data sources, such as CATs to add data for the 2020 and 2021 Y6 cohorts that did not sit the SATs and therefore have no prior attainment data.
This can also be used by international and other schools who do not use KS2 scaled score data.
**Special attributes - KS2 Prior attainment outcomes**
The KS2 results data file from GIAP contains the raw test marks, scaled scores and outcome codes for English Reading, Maths, GPS, and the English Writing teacher assessment.
The codes for the outcomes are a useful shorthand for teachers to see if students achieved the ‘secondary ready’ threshold. There are a range of codes for the SATs subjects, but the key ones are:
- AS – Achieved standard (scaled score = 100+)
- NS – Not achieved standard (scaled score \<100)
For English writing the codes:
- WTS – Working towards standard
- EXS – Expected standard
- GDS – Greater depth standard
- PK1-6 – Pre-key stage standards (SEND learners)
KS2 Science teacher assessment codes:
- EXS – Expected standard
- HNM – Has not met expected standard
Other codes: A – absent for long periods, L – Pupil left school, F – complete in future years, P – completed and TA judgement already submitted.
The KS2 outcomes should be uploaded into GO 4 Schools via the student attributes using the special attributes:
The file should only use the codes available in the KS2 SATs results file from GIAP. The attributes need to be included in an attribute set to be visible for analysis.
Details for uploading student attributes can be found in the School manager’s guide.
**KS2 Outputs**
**Transition matrices**
In 2021 the DfE published an update to the KS4 Transition matrices to include the scaled scores vs GCSE outcomes, these tables use bands to group the scaled scores based on the average English reading and maths results.
For the transition matrices to display you need to have the settings to use KS2 actual grades for progress in the Statistics and analysis settings page. Under Progress preferences setting 1 or 3 should be selected as below:
Actual grades should be enabled for the year group so the KS2 scaled score data is enabled.
GO 4 Schools will display the Scaled score transition matrices based on the following:
- English language and English literature will use the KS2 English reading scaled score
- Maths will use the KS2 Maths scaled score
- All other subjects will use the average of English reading and maths scaled score. Where students have only one result (English reading or maths) their average is equal to their one result as per the DfE rules.
- The transition matrix will display currently only for subjects with a formal QAN assigned and will display the KS2 Avg. bands and the grade types in use for the qualification i.e., fine grades, formal grades, or high/low grades.
The data displayed within the matrix are clickable to view the students within each cell, which can then be exported.
Any enabled Progress grade type can be selected to be viewed in the transition matrix so when exam results are uploaded the data in GO 4 Schools can be checked against the national subject transition matrices published by the DfE.
**KS2 data in Data Explorers and Charts**
Additional fields have been added for schools to select in the year group, subject, and group data explorers for the wide range of KS2 data. These attribute sets of data will also be available in the custom charts and ribbons to enable schools to undertake an informed analysis of their students based on prior attainment data.
**Grades: Core subject node**
English reading, GPS and maths will show the uploaded scaled score results.
**Prior attainment (KS2) node**
English reading, maths and writing will display
- Avg. scaled score data taken from English reading and maths
- Prior attainment bands as used in the subject transition matrix display
- Prior attainment (KS2): KS2 Scaled Score displays the attainment category i.e., High, Middle, Low.
Note that the special attribute Prior attainment (KS2) (legacy) version which is populated by schools directly is still available and will display in the attribute set selected by the school.
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