Marden Lodge pupils celebrate stunning results in phonics and times tables

We are celebrating outstanding results in this year's national phonics and times tables assessments, comfortably outperforming national averages.

Phonics is a method of teaching reading and writing by correlating spoken sounds with letters or groups of letters in the alphabet.

It teaches children to “decode” words by sounding them out rather than memorising them as a whole.

 

At Marden Lodge, 81% of Year 1 pupils met the expected standard in the phonics screening check, a rise of 11 percentage points on last year's 70%, placing the school above the national average of 80% (2025), and marking one of the sharpest improvements across the whole trust.

Pupils also performed strongly in the Year 4 multiplication tables check, with Marden Lodge's average score improving to 22.8 out of 25, ahead of the 21.0 national average score recorded last year.

 

Sarah Rumbol, our Headteacher, said: “This is a brilliant set of results for Marden Lodge and a real credit to our pupils and staff.

To see such a significant jump in our phonics outcomes, alongside continued progress in times tables, shows just how much hard work and dedication has gone in this year.”