Commenting on today’s results for Key Stage 1 assessments, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union said;

“The Key Stage 1 assessment data speaks for itself. Primary schools have maintained a very high level of achievement amongst pupil’s year in year-out.

“While Nick Gibb is right to highlight the fact that the learning of children on free schools meals needs to be targeted with extra support, he really does need to deliver that support. Deconstructing local authority literacy and numeracy services and removing the back up that schools need is hardly the right way to narrow the gap”.