The key stages
If you’re new to the world of modern education the amount of jargon can be bewildering, and none more so than the phrase ‘Key Stages’.

Put simply, a child’s education career can be divided up into six key stages:

• Foundation stage covers ages 4-5, Nursery and Reception classes
  
  
• Key stage 1 covers ages 5-7, school Years 1-2
  
  
• Key stage 2 is ages 7-11, school Years 3-6
  
  
• Key stage 3 is ages 11-14, Years 7-9
  
  
• Key stage 4 is ages 14-16, Year 10-11
  
  
• Key stage 5 is the same as Sixth Form, ages 16-18, Years 12-13

GCSEs taken at the end of Year 11 are often used as a benchmark for measuring the value that schools have added since Key Stage 2.

By measuring a student’s actual attainment at GCSE and comparing it with their predicted grades at age 11, a school can demonstrate that the quality of its teaching has helped its students to achieve higher results than they might in another school.

These and other measures comparing the predicted and actual attainment of students contribute to a school’s ‘value-added’ rating.