Primary school league tables 2016: Shropshire schools 'among best in the Midlands'

Primary school league tables were revealed today for the whole country, after an academic year that has seen seismic shift in how younger children are tested.

Shropshire Council has hailed the figures, based on the results of the summer's national curriculum tests for 11-year-olds, as showing Shropshire's schools are in the top five of the 13 West Midlands local authority areas for reading and mathematics. They are also achieving well nationally.

Key to results:

A: Number of pupils eligible for assessment in National Curriculum Stage 2 tests.

B: Percentage of pupils achieving Level Four and above in reading.

C: Percentage of pupils achieving Level Four and above in Maths.

D: Percentage of pupils achieving Level Four and above in Reading, Maths and Writing.

A new assessment system without levels was introduced this year with pupils taking new, more rigorous SATs tests in the summer.

The key stage two tables confirm the percentage of children achieving the nationally expected standard or above in reading, writing and mathematics combined, and the average progress scores achieved in reading, writing and mathematics separately, a calculation based on national prior attainment groups at the age of seven.

See the results for Telford & Wrekin here

Karen Bradshaw, director of children's services with Shropshire Council, said the new tests were more demanding than previous years, with more expected of pupils and praised the efforts of children, teachers, schools and Shropshire's wider school communities for their hard work.

She said: "This was a particularly challenging year for both pupils and staff due to the considerable changes in assessment.

"We have highly committed school staff who ensure that children get the best possible start to their education and, whilst the standards they achieve in reading, writing and mathematics are only part of the picture, it is good to see Shropshire again riding high in the West Midlands.

"The proportion of pupils attaining the new, more demanding expected standard exceeded national expectation in the key skill of reading and was similar to expectation in writing and maths.

"This provides pupils with a firm foundation on which to build their future educational success."

She said many primary schools in the Shropshire Council area have achieved above the national average on all measures.

Reading was again very strong, with 68 percent of pupils achieving at least the expected standard, compared to 66 percent nationally.

Writing was just below the national average, with 65 per cent of pupils achieving or exceeding the expected standard.

Sixty nine per cent of pupils reached or surpassed the standard in mathematics, which was very close to pupils nationally.

She said when compared to 10 other similar local authorities Shropshire was ranked third in reading and second in mathematics.

A spokesman for Moreton Say C.E. Primary School in Market Drayton said: "We are really proud of the achievements of all the children who worked really hard during their time at Moreton Say to achieve such wonderful results. It is testament of how hard all the staff worked with the children, especially when faced with the challenges of the new curriculum."