Primary schools hailed for national test results

LONDON - The government hailed three primary schools in Merseyside, Greater Manchester and London on Thursday for achieving the best "value added" results in national tests taken by 11-year-old pupils this summer.

Schools Minister Andrew Adonis said Orrets Meadow School in Wirral, St Joseph's Roman Catholic School in Oldham and Gateway Primary school in Westminster had topped the government's Contextual Value Added table.

The measure aims to establish the actual improvement in a child's achievement after stripping out factors as gender, mobility and local deprivation.

It was introduced after critics said raw league tables of the Standard Assessment Tests just reflected the relative affluence of areas, with the richest locations producing the best school results.

Adonis also congratulated Furrow Community School in Rochdale for producing the most sustained improvement in English, Maths and Science in England between 2004 and 2007.

But a handful of schools were demoted to the bottom of the tables after irregularities in the results they submitted.

"It is unacceptable and unnecessary for any school or teacher to cheat," said Adonis.

"Five out of over 13,000 primary schools is not at all representative of what is happening in our schools and can not be seen as any indication of national tests causing increased pressure on teachers."

Teaching unions renewed their calls for the league table to be scrapped, saying they unfairly penalised schools.

"League tables are beyond repair," said Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers.

"Attempts to modify league tables only serve to emphasise their unfairness."

The Key Stage 2 exams, taken by pupils in their final term at primary schools in England, test their ability in English, reading, writing, maths and science.

Children who left primary schools this summer achieved the highest ever results in national tests, but were still below the government's target.

Those achieving the expected standard -- Level 4 -- rose by one percentage point in four of the subjects, to 80 percent in English, 84 percent in reading, 77 percent in maths and 88 percent in science.

But the results remained below the 85 percent target for English and maths which the government had hoped to achieve by last year.

The tests, first introduced by the Conservatives in 1994, have become a backbone of the government's education policy in England since Labour came to power in 1997.