Academies and free schools underperform in Sats, figures show

Maintained schools in England outperform academies and free schools in national exams taken at the end of year 6, and pupils in multi-academy trusts do worse on average, figures show.

The data released by the Department for Education (DfE) at the end of the election purdah will be a mild embarrassment for the government, which sees conversion from council-maintained status to academy or multi-academy trust governance as its key method of school improvement.

The DfE report said 64% of pupils at multi-academy trusts (Mats) reached the government’s benchmark standards in reading, writing and maths, compared with 66% nationally.

Related: Gap in academic skills of girls and boys widens, show Sats

Pupils’ progress in reading was below the national average in 29% of Mats and above the national average in 20%.

The Mats data covered 297 trusts governing at least three schools for three years, with each school’s data weighted according to the length of time they had been governed by a trust and their pupil numbers.

The report said the data “should not be used to infer performance of the Mat system as a whole”, with only 42% of primary academies being part of an eligible trust.

The proportion of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds was higher in Mats than the national average, 36% to 30%, and the gap between the performance of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils was smaller in Mats than in maintained schools.

Other DfE figures show that among pupils taking key stage 2 standardised tests in maths and English, known as Sats, this summer, those in maintained schools on average performed better than those in academies (in Mats or not) and free schools.

Sixty-six per cent of pupils in local authority-maintained schools reached the government’s expected standards in both maths and reading, and 65% did so in academies and free schools. In sponsored academies – typically schools forced into academy status as a result of historically poor performance – 58% of pupils reached the required national standards.

Free schools – the government’s flagship means of opening new schools - also compared poorly with maintained schools, with 62% of pupils reaching the expected standards. In maths alone, 77% of free school pupils reached the expected standard, compared with 80% in maintained primaries.

The gap between pupils whose first language is or is not English has almost disappeared, the figures show, and black pupils appear to have caught up with white pupils in terms of attainment in reading and maths.

Related: Primary school teachers want to see Sats scrapped

The Sats results also show that “summer-born” children still trail their slightly older peers, with a 12 percentage-point gap in reading, writing and maths between pupils born in September, the start of the school year, and those born in August.

Pupils born between September and February have higher attainment than the national average, while those born between March and August have lower attainment. However, those born in summer made faster progress between the end of key stage one and key stage two.

“In general, the progress made by younger pupils born in later months of an academic year is above the national average. This pattern indicates that younger pupils are narrowing the attainment gap on their older peers within their cohort as they move through the school system,” the DfE said.