Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels: 2022/23

Chapter 9: About these statistics

9.1 Sources

The data included in this publication are provided to Scottish Government by local authorities and grant-aided schools. Independent schools are not included in the data collection. The assessments of children’s progress are based on teachers’ professional judgements in schools.

Teacher professional judgements of achievement of a level are based on all of the evidence collected by teachers during the ongoing assessment of children and young people’s learning. A wide range of evidence is collected in a variety of ways. This includes observing children and young people at work, assessing their work in class, standardised assessments and assessing children and young people’s knowledge and understanding by talking to them about their learning.

The Achievement of CfE Level census date was Monday 12 June 2023. Data were submitted by local authorities to Scottish Government by Friday 25 August 2023. A process of quality assurance between Scottish Government, local authorities and schools occurs before the production of these statistics. Further information on this can be found in chapter 10.

9.2 Coverage

The data collected cover all pupils in Primary 1, Primary 4, Primary 7 and Secondary 3 in mainstream schools and all pupils based in special schools/units. Data were provided for 234,291 pupils. Teacher judgements cover the four organisers of reading, writing, listening and talking and numeracy. Pupils for whom the teacher has been unable to make a professional judgement are not included in the published results (less than one per cent of pupils).

A very small percentage (less than one per cent) of children have long-term significant and complex additional support needs that mean that it is unlikely they will progress through the CfE levels during their time in education. These children are included within the data as ‘pupil following individual milestones’.

9.3 Pupils based in special schools or standalone special units

Within some local authorities school pupils with complex needs may attend a special school or standalone special unit.

Special schools and standalone special units cater for children of all ages. The information gathered as part of the ACEL return does not include a specific stage for these pupils (i.e. they are simply recorded as being a pupil based in a special school or standalone special unit and not as being in P1, P4, etc.). Therefore, it is not possible to calculate the percentage of pupils who have achieved the CfE level relevant to their stage. Results for pupils in standalone special schools or special units are presented in Chapter 6 but are not included in the analysis in other chapters.

A new category ‘Studying beyond BGE level’ was introduced in the 2021/22 data collection for use by standalone special schools and units. The category is for use where:

(a) a pupil is in the senior phase and,

(b) the pupil is being taught at least one qualification, other award, or work- based learning, at SCQF Level 1 and above and,

(c) teachers would not normally make CfE level judgements for pupils in the senior phase.

This was in response to reports that some pupils in special schools and standalone special units were being recorded as ‘Not Assessed’ when these pupils were working towards national qualifications. In 2019, we consulted key stakeholders, including Education Scotland, special schools and standalone special units and local authorities, regarding how these pupils should be appropriately recorded. The introduction of this new code reflects their feedback.

However, in other local authorities, pupils with complex needs are integrated into mainstream schools; where this is the case, these pupils have been included throughout this publication. These differences in where pupils with complex needs receive their education across the different local authorities should be kept in mind when making comparisons between local authorities, or between individual schools. Based on the supplementary tables associated with the Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland publication, local authorities with no special schools are; Angus, East Lothian, Moray, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney Islands, Scottish Borders and Shetland Islands.

Young people with long-term significant and complex additional support needs are included within the data as ‘pupil following individual milestones’. Where these pupils are learning within a mainstream school or special unit integrated within a mainstream school they will be included in the national and local authority analysis and counted as not having achieved a CfE Level. Where these pupils are learning within a standalone special school or unit they will be included in Chapter 6 and displayed in the ‘Child following individual milestones’ category.

9.4 Derived variables: P1, P4, P7 combined and literacy variable

The publication tables include two derived variables: P1, P4 and P7 combined and literacy.

P1, P4 and P7 combined figures have been available on the school level dashboard since 2015/16 to provide data for small schools (where data for individual stages would potentially reveal information about individual pupils). P1, P4 and P7 combined figures are available at local authority and national level for comparison purposes.

The literacy variable has been created from the three literacy organisers: reading, writing and listening and talking. A pupil is deemed to have achieved the expected level in literacy if they have achieved the expected level in all three literacy organisers. A pupil is deemed not to have achieved the expected level in overall literacy if they have failed to achieve the expected level in one or more of the individual organisers. If a pupil has not been assessed in one or more of the organisers (‘Not Assessed’), their results are not included in calculation of the overall literacy variable.

These two derived variables are used in the key measures in the National Improvement Framework (NIF):

• Percentage of P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined achieving expected Level in Literacy;
• Percentage of P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined achieving expected Level in Numeracy;
• Percentage of S3 pupils achieving Third Level or better in Literacy and;
• Percentage of S3 pupils achieving Third Level or better in Numeracy.

9.5 Gaelic medium education

Pupils based in Gaelic medium primary schools/classes will learn and develop their literacy and numeracy skills in both Gàidhlig and English.

Pupils in Primary 1 Gaelic medium primary schools will generally be immersed in developing their reading, writing, listening and talking and numeracy skills in the medium of Gaelic.

From around Primary 3, children based in Gaelic medium primary schools/classes will also start to develop their skills in reading, writing and listening and talking in the English language.

It is expected that by the end of Primary 7, most children who have been based in Gaelic medium primary schools/classes should be achieving Second Level in reading, writing, and listening and talking in both Gàidhlig and English.

For pupils based in Gaelic medium primary schools/classes, the following data are collected and published.

Gàidhlig Reading: collected for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils

Gàidhlig Writing: collected for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils

Gàidhlig Listening and Talking: collected for P1, P4, P7 and S3 pupils

English Reading: collected for P7 and S3 pupils only

English Writing: collected for P7 and S3 pupils only

English Listening & Talking: collected for P7 and S3 pupils only

Numeracy: collected for P4, P7 and S3 pupils only

Achievement of CfE levels in Gàidhlig can be found in Chapter 5.

9.6 Data matching

To reduce the burden on data providers, as per the Code of Practice for Statistics, pupil characteristic information was added to the Achievement of CfE Levels data by using previously collected data from the Pupil Census 2022. The following variables were added:

• Ethnicity
• Additional Support Needs
• English as an Additional Language
• Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
• 6-fold Urban Rural Classification

Achievement of CfE Level data and Pupil Census data were initially matched based on Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) and school or, where an initial match is not made, based on SCN and other demographic information (e.g. sex and date of birth).

9.7 Supplementary tables

The collection involves a large amount of data, which cannot be fully presented in this publication. This report seeks to highlight the key messages and give a flavour of the range of analysis possible. Detailed tables are published as supporting tables alongside this publication, and provide a fuller picture of the findings (see the supplementary tables). As with school level information, a disclosure control policy is applied to supplementary tables.

Within the supplementary tables for 2022/23, trend data for 2016/17 to 2022/23 has been included for pupil characteristics. This includes data by Additional Support Needs, English as an Additional Language, urban rural classification, sex, ethnicity and Gaelic education.

9.8 Revisions policy

Data submissions for the latest year can sometimes identify required revisions for previously submitted data. Scottish Government will revise the previous years’ results at the time of publication of the latest year’s results. Data revisions must be received by October for inclusion in the next publication. No revisions have been made to historic data for the 2022/23 publication.

9.9 Rounding

Figures used in the commentary of this report are based on the unrounded data which can be found in the supplementary tables. This means that they may not always match with figures that are derived using the rounded data displayed in tables and charts.

9.10 International and UK comparability

England, Wales and Northern Ireland also report on literacy and numeracy performance based on teacher judgements, however, due to the differing education systems and curriculums, direct comparisons cannot be made.

England: Statistics at the Department for Education

Wales: Examinations and assessments

Northern Ireland: Department of Education Statistics

Scotland participates in the OECD’s triennial Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey. This assessment is undertaken by 15 year-olds in over sixty countries, including all OECD countries, and as such is a key international benchmark of performance. The results of most recent PISA survey are available on the Scottish Government website.

9.11 Further information on attainment

A range of other information on the performance of Scotland’s school pupils is available.

The Scottish Government publishes analysis of school leaver attainment (qualifications) and destinations. The latest data are available at the School education statistics website.

Further assessment and attainment information on schools can be found on the Scottish Government Education dashboards.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) publish attainment statistics which can be found at the SQA website.

9.12 Transcript of the infographic

The Infographic presented on pages 2 and 3 show the following:

That 79.6 per cent of P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined achieved the expected level for numeracy in 2022/23. This compares to 77.9 per cent in 2021/22, 74.7 per cent in 2020/21, 79.1 per cent in 2018/19, 78.4 per cent in 2017/18 and 76.4 per cent in 2016/17.

That 72.7 per cent of P1, P4 and P7 pupils combined achieved the expected level for literacy in 2022/23. This compares to 70.5 per cent in 2021/22, 66.9 per cent in 2020/21, 72.3 per cent in 2018/19, 71.4 per cent in 2017/18 and 69.2 per cent in 2016/17.

That 89.6 per cent of S3 pupils achieved Third Level or better for numeracy in 2022/23. This compares to 89.1 per cent in 2021/22, 90.2 per cent in 2018/19, 89.0 per cent in 2017/18 and 88.2 per cent in 2016/17.

That 87.8 per cent of S3 pupils achieved Third Level or better for literacy in 2022/23. This compares to 85.5 per cent in 2021/22, 87.9 per cent in 2018/19, 87.3 per cent in 2017/18 and 87.1 per cent in 2016/17.

That around 80 per cent of primary pupils achieved the expected level for reading and 87 per cent achieved the expected level for listening and talking.

That 78 per cent of P1 pupils, 72 per cent of P4 pupils and 75 per cent of P7 pupils achieved the expected level in writing.

That 85 per cent of P1 pupils, 77 per cent of P4 pupils and 78 per cent of P7 pupils achieved the expected level in numeracy.

That Around nine out of ten S3 pupils achieved Third Level or better for listening & talking (91%), reading (90%) and writing (89%) and that around nine out of ten S3 pupils achieved Third Level or better for numeracy (90%).

That female pupils outperform male pupils across almost all stages and organisers.

That across all stages and organisers the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level was lower for pupils with an Additional Support Need than for those without.

That across all stages and literacy organisers the proportion of pupils achieving the expected level was lower for pupils who have English as an Additional Language than for pupils who do not.

That the Primary literacy gap reduced to 20.5 percentage points in 202//23, the narrowest it has been since 2016/17 – the first year for which comparisons can be made. The previous narrowest gap was 20.7 percentage points in 2018/19.

That the Primary numeracy gap reduced to 17.0 percentage points in 202//23, slightly wider than it was before the pandemic in 2018/19 (16.8 percentage points).

That the S3 gap for literacy at Third Level or better reduced to 13.7 percentage points in 2022/23, similar to the level in 2018/19 (13.8 percentage points).

That the S3 gap for numeracy at Third Level or better reduced to 13.6 percentage points in 2022/23, similar to the level in 2018/19 (13.5 percentage points).