Educational attainment of blind and partially sighted pupils | findings

Highlighting problems with the Government’s published figures

Nov 2009 |

This study looked at the educational attainment of blind and partially sighted pupils at Key Stage 3 and GCSE level in England and Wales, GCSE level in Northern Ireland, and Standard grade level in Scotland using pupil census data.

In all four countries, pupils with visual impairment performed less well than pupils without SEN but generally better than pupils who had other SEN.

The key findings were:

Half of blind and partially sighted pupils have an additional SEN unrelated to sight.
There's only a small attainment gap for pupils with visual impairment as the only SEN.
Pupils with visual impairment and additional SEN fall behind in secondary school.

Half of blind and partially sighted pupils have an additional SEN unrelated to sight.

The most common additional SEN in England was moderate learning difficulties.

There's only a small attainment gap for pupils with visual impairment as the only SEN.

In Northern Ireland, the GCSE results of pupils with visual impairment as their sole SEN were no different from pupils without SEN when personal characteristics were controlled for.

In England and Wales, pupils with visual impairment as their only SEN had slightly lower Key Stage 3 results, and were somewhat less likely to achieve 5 or more GCSEs grade A* to C, compared with pupils without SEN.

When we controlled for the pupils' results at the previous Key Stage the results of the pupils with visual impairment were no different from the results of pupils without SEN. We conclude that the small attainment gap was probably already present before the pupils began secondary school.

Pupils with visual impairment and additional SEN fall behind in secondary school.

The school results of blind and partially sighted pupils with an additional SEN were considerably lower in all four countries.

In England, this was the case even after controlling for prior attainment. This indicates that pupils with both visual impairment and additional SEN unrelated to sight continue to fall behind during secondary school.