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Secondary education

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Original poster

Would you worry if 44% of entrants to a (secondary) school couldn't read?

53 replies

Takver · 08/07/2012 12:31

To be more exact, 44% 'have a reading age of lower than 9.5 years' - from the Estyn report. Would this worry you if you were choosing a school?

Its not in a particularly deprived area, nor does it have many (I suspect a trivial no.) of children for whom English is a 2nd language.

OP posts:
exoticfruits · 08/07/2012 13:19

Yes-so much so that I would choose a different school.

Themumsnot · 08/07/2012 13:18

Talk - they are a year older than that surely? 11 years, one day to 12?
OP - this could indicate, as Talk says, weaknesses at primary school level so she is correct in saying that you would want to know how the secondary addresses this and what sort of progress the children make during their time there. I am not sure what data is published on Welsh schools, but comparing their value added score to similar local schools would give you some idea of how effective the school is in improving outcomes for its intake.

TalkinPeace2 · 08/07/2012 13:10

Statistically, if the children on entry to secondary school range in age between 10 years and one day and 11 years to the day, the reading ages on the normal distribution will dictate that around a third will have a reading age of 9.5 or below

this is skewed by local demographics but not much
and 44% does imply some weaknesses at the primary schools

the fact that you mention Estyn rather than Ofsted is the clue - standards at Welsh schools - without the spotlight of SATs and league tables - have not progressed as well as those at English schools.

The main thing will be to ask what programmes the Secondary has in place to keep the more able stretched while bringing the weaker ones up to a more appropriate level.

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