One in seven children struggles to write his or her name after a year at primary school, official figures showed yesterday. Fourteen per cent of five-year-olds – almost 80,000 – are unable to scribble ‘mum’, ‘dad’ or their first name from memory. Some 11 per cent have trouble sounding out the alphabet, and four in ten cannot write a simple shopping list or letter to Father Christmas, according to assessments of pupils’ progress at the end of their reception year at primary school.
Overall, just half of the 556,000 children at this stage were judged to have reached a ‘good level of development’.
The figures, which come from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, apply to pupils in both state and private sectors. While the five-year-olds’ progress was judged to be better than last year, it was still down on 2005 in most areas. Officials have blamed tougher assessment arrangements for the decline in results since 2005 but the Tories have warned that performance is ’slipping back’.
Ministers have also missed a 2008 target for 53 per cent of children in state-maintained schools and nurseries to meet the expected level of development.
