The number of 11-year-olds reaching the level expected of them in English has fallen for the first time in national curriculum tests, figures recently reveal.

A fifth of primary school pupils are not reaching level 4 in English, the standard required of that age group.  The results show a 1 per cent decrease from last year, from 81 per cent to 80 per cent; this is the first time there has been a drop since 1995.

The results mean a total of 115,000 primary school pupils starting secondary school this yearl are struggling with English. Of these, 46,000 failed to achieve any grade at all.

In addition, the percentage mastering the 'three Rs' of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic has fallen from 62 per cent to 61 per cent. This is also the first fall since joint statistics were first collected four years ago and shows 225,000 struggling to succeed in all three areas.

One of the major problems to be identified from the recent results were in boys' writing, which showed that four out of ten male pupils leave primary school struggling to write properly.

A ballot on a boycott of next year’s SATs has been planned by two education unions. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) are in opposition to SATs, as they claim teachers are obliged to ‘teach to the test’.