SCHOOLS in the Frome area all stayed firmly above the national standard in the recent Key Stage 2 performance tables.
The performance tables, released prior to Christmas, measure the percentage of pupils achieving level four or higher in their English and maths SATs.
St Louis Catholic Primary School saw a 3% rise to 83%, giving it the highest in the town, and above the new national average of 80%, and Somerset’s 78% average.
Oakfield School saw a slight fall to 78%, bringing it into line with the county average, and Selwood Academy saw a fall to 72% – below the average but still firmly above the floor standard of 65%.
Oakfield School’s headteacher Emma Wilkes said, “This year, more Oakfield children achieved the new national minimum standard ‘age related expectation’ than ever before and a higher percentage of pupils met or exceeded their targets.
“We are very proud of our pupils’ achievements and of how hard they worked towards sitting these challenging exams. It was a team effort between pupils, teachers, teaching assistants and the support of our parents.”
Jean Hopegood, headteacher at Selwood Academy said, “Selwood encourages all its pupils to aim high and believe in their own abilities, be it when taking national tests in English and maths or in developing personal communication skills, artistic talent, sporting prowess, putting the needs of others first, or showing empathy, understanding and developing leadership qualities.
“The children say ‘I can’ and are always ready to face challenges with a positive mind set. We are very proud of our children’s achievements which are abundant and diverse.
“This year our reading attainment for year six increased by 10% to 94% of all the children in the year six making expected progress or higher.
“Progress across the last four years at Selwood is at an all time high with 97% of all pupils achieving expected outcomes in maths and 98% of all pupils achieving expected outcomes in English.
“We celebrate not just these statistics but so much more on a daily basis and recognise that in all things, improvements can always be made.”
The performance tables showed that primary education has improved on a national scale, with 80% of pupils achieving level four or above in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2010, one in three pupils did not achieve this level, compared to one in five today.
2015 will be the final year that this measure of achievement will be used; as of summer 2016 pupils will be assessed against a higher standard in line with the revised curriculum put in place in September 2014.
Full primary school performance tables can be found at www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance