SHEFFIELD may be the worst education authority in the region but several of the city's school's are still able to celebrate outstanding test results today.
St Wilfrid's Catholic Primary School in Millhouses Lane, Sheffield, was named as Yorkshire's best primary school in the latest league tables.
All 42 of its 11-year-olds who sat key stage two tests earlier this year reached the expected levels in English, maths and science.
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It was one of 18 schools in the region and more than 200 in the country to get 100 per cent of its pupils to reach level four results – the level expected of 11-year-olds.
But St Wilfrid's was named as Yorkshire's best and the ninth best in the country because it had more children achieve this feat than the majority of schools on the list of the country's top 200 performers.
St Wilfrid's regularly achieves among the best test scores in the country, but the school's head teacher Barbara Jarrett said she did not support the use of league tables.
She said: "Every child should be leaving primary school able to read, write and do arithmetic. Unless they have the basic skills they are not going to be able to build on that when learning in secondary school.
"I'm not in favour of tables but I am in favour of an education system which gives children the building blocks they need before they leave primary school. When they don't have these it makes things very hard for them which is why we have all of these young people who are not in education, employment or training. Primary education is really important."
Mrs Jarrett said focusing on teaching the basics along with the school's Catholic ethos and community spirit were key to St Wilfrid's success.
Aston Hall Junior and Infant School in Sheffield was named as the region's second best school as all 30 of its 11-year-old pupils also achieved level four in English, maths and science. Marsh Lane Primary School in the city also saw 100 per cent of pupils reaching the expected level in all three subjects.
St Patrick's Catholic Primary in Birstall, St Urban's Catholic Primary in Leeds, Hill Top CE Primary in Bradford and Skirlaugh Voluntary CE Controlled School in Hull also achieved 100 per cent success rates across the three standard assessment test subjects.
League tables in full » Opinion: Forget all the nonsense and just give us better schools »The full article contains 450 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
