Harbertonford Primary School Celebrates SATs Success

Pupils and staff at Harbertonford Primary School, part of the Link Academy Trust, are celebrating their Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) results this week.

SATs are taken by children in Year 6 at the end of primary school. These national curriculum assessments cover English grammar, punctuation and spelling, reading, and maths. SATs are designed to measure pupils’ progress, identify where additional support may be needed, assess how well schools are performing, and contribute to national education performance data.

The school’s combined score for the number of pupils achieving the expected standard in reading writing and maths is a brilliant 67%, which is a huge jump up from last year’s 44%.  While we don’t yet know the national average pass rate for this year, last year it was 61%.

I’m incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made

Harbertonford Primary School has been on a journey during the last academic year with a renowned focus on strong academic outcomes sitting alongside a revamped extracurricular offering, and restarting a variety of school trips, as well as a decorative refresh throughout most of the school.

The school is also celebrating brilliant phonics results this year with 80% of Harbertonford pupils passing the national Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, an assessment designed to check children’s ability to decode words using phonics.  This is a massive improvement on last year when 56% of pupils passed.  The phonics screening check evaluates pupils on 40 words, both real and made-up words, to assess their decoding skills. Research consistently demonstrates that a solid foundation in phonics underpins long-term literacy development and academic success.

The school’s strong focus on literacy was highlighted in a recent Ofsted report with inspectors stating that Harbertonford pupils love to read; saying that reading ‘allows you to get lost in your own world’. Ofsted inspectors praised the school for having high expectations for all pupils and for the highly positive relationships between staff and pupils.
Mr Jack Pemberton, Headteacher at Harbertonford Primary School said: “These results are a real testament to the hard work and dedication of our pupils and staff. Over the past year, we’ve focused on raising academic standards while ensuring that Harbertonford remains a place where every child feels valued, supported, and inspired. 
“I’m incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made, not just in the classroom, but across the whole school community. Our improvement journey is about more than just test results; it’s about nurturing confident, curious learners and developing the whole child. This success shows what we can achieve together when we set high expectations and believe in every child’s potential.“