As a Junior School we don't rely heavily on Progress measures because they are acknowledged to be flawed. It is pretty obvious when you think about.
Key Stag 1 Data is teacher assessed based on learning through the year- there is no statuary test.
Progress has been measured from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 (Infant to Primary)
All through primary schools suppress/remain cautious with their Infant (KS1) data to make their progress look better.
Here's an interesting article about this specific issue and the possibilities in the future of measuing from a baseline...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fO06hyVvEBX4E9H6g6WrjeTSLyHOHTYMuBdq4q0UtxI/edit?usp=sharing
Data for those that like data - with SIGNIFICANT caveat - the Covid Impact Story...
CRITICAL to remember, in line with guidance, this is assessment based on ‘WHAT WAS COVERED’ which is severely impacted by Covid. It is therefore NOT a comparative measure with previous years.
It serves, possibly, to evidence an improvement in ARE ‘based on WHAT WAS COVERED’ this is teacher assessed and moderated between teaching teams.
Do remember teacher assessment issues nationally which begs the question how reliable is teacher moderated assessment n a context of external pressures?...
"The more any quantities social indicator is used for social-decision making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor." Or simply put, "When test scores becomes the goal of the teaching process, they both lose their value as indicators of educational status and distort the educational process in undesirable ways." Cambell's Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%27s_law
Do notice below, the general inflation overall - an issue - and then the even greater inflation within the private sector - Important to note the private sector fund and manage their own inspectorate. It is not difficult to imagine what has driven this even greater data inflation within schools which, primarily, follow an elitist business model - it would appear that treating children and society fairly is a far less important educational endeavor, than making money/nepotism/elitism...
BUT - Not having the brightest and best of a society in the most influential and impactful positions of power can only be a bad thing for that Society/ Community/ Country/ World.