Greater depth at all subjects

[RememberingGoodTimes]

My son has ended Year 3 with a school report saying he’s working at greater depth in all subjects. This isn’t a huge surprise to us as he’s had nothing but praise so far at school, he’s a good boy, loves school and is able to focus well.

I’m wondering if this is rare or if it’s common for those who work at greater depth to do so across all subjects, as opposed to the odd one.

We’re in a grammar school area with some super selective schools nearby and I’m just trying to gauge where he’s at. He’s my eldest so secondary is alien to me. I’m not a pushy parent at all, I just want to understand what this means for his future options really, if he continues to progress at the same rate.

I don't think it's rare, my eldest has had that since year 3 and my youngest has just got that in all subjects at the end of year 2. And he is definitely not out of the ordinary for his class. I reckon there must be seven or eight kids in my eldest's class who have had that every year since year 2/3.

My eldest is off to grammar but so are about 25 other kids from her state primary. He's probably got a very good shot at it.

Oh really? His teacher has indicated he’s quite far out in his class.

There's 4 or 5 in eldests DCs class who are GD across the board. State primary, year 5. They have been since pretty much the start

Your child’s primary has clearly done a great job with the kids to get such a high pass rate!

I think it’s less than 50% in our school, but it’s a single form entry village school so a wide range of abilities and we also live very near to an ok comprehensive so many may simply choose to not go for grammar.

I looked into this as I wasn’t familiar with what greater depth meant originally. My impression is that it will vary from school to school. I think that it’s very unlikely that there would be 7 or 8 such children in my son’s class, unlike the previous example. Possibly 5 or less but I can’t say with any certainty.

I believe that greater depth in math and reading is more common than in writing, but I don’t know if that’s specific to SATs or applies to assessments in other years.

Depends on catchment area

It’s not very rare - around 30% if children achieve greater depth across maths reading and spag at KS2.

It’s really not rare. Greater depth doesn’t mean “genius level”, it means they’re doing really well, grasping concept easily, maybe helping others in the class understand things, using creative and descriptive language in their writing etc

From my research, it’s around 25% in each subject. No stats on how many achieve across all subjects but likely to be lower.

Will have to be patient and see how things go I think.

I’ve since googled and you’re right, looks to be ~25% of pupils get greater depth in each subject, so not rare. I can’t find any national stats on how many pupils achieve GD across every subject, but instinctively I’d say it’s probably only slightly lower.

Attainment at the higher standard
In reading, 33% of pupils met the higher standard, up from 29% in 2024. This is the highest this figure has been since the first assessments using the new national curriculum in 2016.
In writing teacher assessment, 13% of pupils achieved greater depth, unchanged since 2022. Before the pandemic, in both 2018 and 2019, this figure was 20%. Attainment in writing is not directly comparable to some earlier years (2016 and 2017) because of changes to writing teacher assessment frameworks in 2018.
In maths, 26% of pupils met the higher standard, up from 24% in 2024.
Among reading, writing and maths, attainment at the higher standard is highest in reading. From 2016 to 2018, reading was also highest. In 2019, reading and maths were highest at 27%. Attainment of the higher standard in these three subjects remains lowest in writing.
In grammar, punctuation and spelling, 30% of pupils met the higher standard, down from 32% in 2024.

explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-2-attainment/2024-25-revised

8% reach greater depth across all subjects

You always get people on these threads who try to do down your child’s achievements by making it sound more common than it actually is. To get greater depth in every subject is rare.

Schools also don’t like to give greater depth out without being sure, especially in the younger years, as they then have to keep the child at that level.

My eldest has just got greater depth in her SATS in reading, SPAG and Maths, and expected in writing. She has been at expected in all core subjects throughout school, with the exception of Maths where they moved her to greater depth in year 5 when they were sure they could evidence it.

We don’t talk as parents about our children’s results so I don’t know how PPs know how many children in the class are greater depth.

Both my dds were GD for everything, every year. I didn’t ask friends if that was normal, because I would sound like a twat! They both went to grammar.

Both my elder 2 were the same throughout primary school. They were definitely at the top end of their cohort ability wise, but there were a few others in their classes of 30 in the same (or similar) boat.
Mine are both now on academic scholarships at a selective independent secondary.

Thats great your son is at that level - he's clearly very bright. I have one son who has just finished primary and got this across the board, and is going to a super selective grammar. My younger son at end year 3 also got this, so hoping he can also follow his brother. As @YoQuieroVino says - my eldest had very few in similar boat, but he was fine with that. I am a bit worried how that step up to grammar might be for him, having never really been pushed

You dont need to talk as parents to know... my kid is very self aware, knows who emits on the "top" table, knows who got better/worse than him in tests etc. Think they're a quite competitive little group

Does having greater depth recorded in KS1 put pressure on teachers and students in subsequent years?

I think schools care about % achieving expected standard - most report that.

Definitely not rare I’d say more normal, in primary bright children seem to be good at both subjects it’s only when they get to high school that they beach out more.

From my school, not rare at all in maths or reading. It’s the writing that seems to actually be the harder one to get. I’m also not sure how much you can read into year 3 as some schools really ramp up the learning in year 6 ahead of sats.

This can give you some insight into Y6 stats but as far as I can tell there is no nationally recorded data for the other years. Perhaps there was for KS1 SATs at one time.

explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/2d489758-2453-4bc7-6441-08dee4075145

Our primary publishes this for y6. About 20% of kids get gds in all areas.

Nationally, less than 10% get greater depth across the board.