Our results, at every stage
We are a village school, and our class sizes are small. We publish our results openly, in line with Department for Education practice — and where a group contains fewer than six children, we do not publish percentages, to protect individual pupils. Children are assessed nationally at several points on their journey through South Darley, and this page shows every one of them. Behind every figure on it is a child we know and cherish.
Key Stage 2 — how our Year 6 children did in 2026
In summer 2026, 8 children sat the Key Stage 2 tests, so each child's result is represented by 12.5%. Percentages can therefore move significantly from year to year, and scaled scores, where 100 is the expected standard, give a more stable picture of individual attainment. That is why we show this year as children first and percentages second.
| Reading | ●●●●●●●○ | 7 of 8 | reached the expected standard — nationally 6 of 8 |
| Writing | ●●●●●●●○ | 7 of 8 | reached the expected standard — nationally nearly 6 of 8 |
| Maths | ●●●●●●●○ | 7 of 8 | reached the expected standard — nationally 6 of 8 |
| All three combined | ●●●●●●○○ | 6 of 8 | reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths — nationally 5 of 8 |
| Higher standard, all three | ●●○○○○○○ | 2 of 8 | achieved the higher standard in all three — nationally fewer than 1 of 8 |
| Put another way: in a group of eight children nationally, you would not expect even one to reach the higher standard in all three subjects. Two of ours did. |
The national figures show how many children out of eight you would expect to reach each standard if the national average applied to a group the size of ours. Exact percentages for our school and for England are in the tables below.
The full figures
| % reaching the expected standard | Our school (8 children) |
National 2026 (all schools in England) |
Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 87.5% | 75% | ▲ 12.5 points above |
| Writing (teacher assessed) | 87.5% | 73% | ▲ 14.5 points above |
| Maths | 87.5% | 75% | ▲ 12.5 points above |
| Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar | 75% | 74% | ▲ 1 point above |
| Combined Reading, Writing & Maths | 75% | 63% | ▲ 12 points above |
| % achieving the higher standard (greater depth in writing) |
Our school (8 children) |
National 2026 (all schools in England) |
Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 37.5% | 31% | ▲ 6.5 points above |
| Writing (teacher assessed) | 25% | 13% | ▲ 12 points above |
| Maths | 37.5% | 27% | ▲ 10.5 points above |
| Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar | 25% | 30% | ▼ 5 points below |
| Combined Reading, Writing & Maths | 25% | 9% | ▲ 16 points above |
| Average scaled score (100 = the expected standard) |
Our school (8 children) |
National 2026 (all schools in England) |
Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 108.5 | 106 | ▲ 2.5 above |
| Maths | 107.5 | 105 | ▲ 2.5 above |
| Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar | 106.4 | 105 | ▲ 1.4 above |
Writing is assessed by teachers rather than by a test, so it does not have a scaled score. The combined measure draws all three subjects together, so it does not have one either.
Our 2026 results are provisional: they are confirmed nationally after a checking exercise in the autumn, and we will update this page if any figure changes. National figures are the Department for Education's initial 2026 national averages, published 16 July 2026; the DfE publishes revised figures in December 2026. Progress scores for this year group are due to be published by the DfE in December 2026, and we will add them to this page when they are released.
Compare our full results — including previous years — on the DfE website ›
The other national assessments
Children are assessed at three further points before Year 6:
Early Years Foundation Stage (end of Reception)
Our Reception groups are typically smaller than six children, so in line with DfE practice we do not publish single-year percentages. Across the last four years (2023–2026), 13 of the 17 children completing Reception at South Darley achieved a Good Level of Development — 76%, against a national average of around 68%.
Phonics (Years 1 and 2)
In 2026, every child in Year 2 — 100% — had passed the national phonics screening check by the end of Key Stage 1, against a national average of around 89%. This was also the school's result in 2023, the most recent previous year with a reportable Year 2 cohort.
Multiplication Tables Check (Year 4)
| Year | Children | Average score (out of 25) | Scoring full marks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Our school | National | Our school | National | ||
| 2024 | 7 | 23.4 | 20.6 | 57% | 34% |
| 2025 | 11 | 22.1 | 21.0 | 36% | 37% |
| 2026 | 9 | 22.1 | not yet published | 33% | not yet published |
National figures for 2026 are published later in the year, and we will add them here when they are available. In both years for which national figures are available, our Year 4 children's average score has been above the national average.
Our own assessment, across the whole school
| National tests only sample certain year groups. Our own teacher assessment, moderated within the school and with our local cluster, tracks every child every term. At the end of 2025/26, the large majority of pupils from Years 1 to 6 — around four in five — were working at or above age-related expectations in reading, writing and maths. Where a child needs more support, our small classes mean we spot it early and act quickly — that is the everyday advantage of a village school. |
This is the school's own assessment information, shared for openness; unlike the figures above, it is not externally validated, and we present it separately for that reason.
