Provisional data released this week shows that 75.2% of children at the city reached the expected standard in reading, compared to 74% across England as a whole.
Locally, 69.3% of pupils reached the expected standard in writing, and 71.8% did so in maths, compared to a national average of 69% and 71% respectively.
The percentage of pupils in Wolverhampton meeting the required standards in all 3 areas of reading, writing and maths was 59.7%, compared to the national average of 59%.
Councillor Chris Burden, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Work, said: "This is a very good performance by our Year 6 pupils, who were arguably among the hardest hit by the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic over the last 2 years – and it's great to see that children in Wolverhampton are now performing above the national average in all Key Stage 2 subject areas.
"To put that into context, the last time similar data was produced before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, our pupils were above national average in writing but below in the other subjects, so this is a very admirable achievement indeed.
"And while overall performance both locally and nationally has dipped slightly since 2019, which is a direct result of the impact of the pandemic on learning, the decline in Wolverhampton is much less marked than the England average and, in fact, performance by our pupils in reading has even improved since then.
"So overall this is very good news for the city and testimony to the hard work of schools, children and families in what have been very difficult circumstances over the last couple of years. It is also testimony to the work of the council in supporting schools to improve, and in challenging where performance is below where it ought to be.”
The positive Key Stage 2 performance comes hot on the heels of new data which shows that 88% of schools in Wolverhampton with a current Ofsted judgement are now rated Good or Outstanding by inspectors. That is up from 79% 5 years ago and puts Wolverhampton above both the regional and the national average in this measure, too.
Councillor Burden added: "We are determined to continue on this journey of improvement and, over the coming months and years, we anticipate that even more schools will become Good or Outstanding, and that outcomes for pupils will continue to get better."
