Nursery World - Free school pupils score higher in phonics check

Children attending free schools and converter academies outperformed those in sponsored academies and local authority-run schools in the phonics check.

There was no change overall in the percentage of pupils achieving the 'expected standard' in the Year 1 phonics check

The latest results from the year 1 phonics screening check, published today, reveal that 87 per cent of pupils in mainstream free schools and 83 per cent of pupils from mainstream converter academies met the ‘expected standard’.

However, 82 per cent of pupils in maintained schools met the standard, compared to 80 per cent of pupils in mainstream sponsored academies.

However, the statistics acknowledge that there are far fewer free schools (188) than local authority maintained (10,875) and academy schools (4,760).

Overall, the statistics show that 82 per cent of pupils achieved the 'expected standard' - the same as last year. This is the first year since 2012 that the percentage meeting the required standard has not increased.

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