West Lancashire schools enjoy exam success as primary league tables published

Dec 20 2012 by Rob Pattinson, Ormskirk Advertiser

SCHOOLS across West Lancashire enjoyed exam success following the publication of this year’s primary league tables.

West End School and Banks Methodist were among those celebrating 100% pass rates at both English and maths at Level 4, while county-wide figures were the best on record.

The success relates to pupils managing to get the expected Level 4 standard in both English and maths in Key Stage Two tests taken by 11 year-olds.

West End head teacher Nigel Baxter praised the hard work of children and staff as well as the support from the county council after seeing the school’s pass rate rise from 57% in 2010 to 80% in 2011 and now 100% in 2012.

He said: “We’ve put a huge emphasis on the teaching of reading, which is core to everything, and has improved dramatically over the last four years. It’s about making learning exciting and we’ve also had a great deal of support from the local authority and couldn’t do it without them.”

Jean Morris, head of Banks Methodist, said she was “very, very pleased” after the school achieved a perfect pass rate, up from 44% the year before.

Congratulating pupils for their hard work, Bob Stott, Lancashire County Council's director with responsibility for schools, said: “Lancashire’s 11-year-olds are celebrating their best-ever performance at Key Stage 2, with the great majority of pupils making good progress and 81% of them gaining Level 4 or above in English and maths.”

The proportion of schools in Lancashire below the floor standard of 60% set by the government fell from 8% to 3% this year – a total of 12 schools. Delph Side, in Skelmersdale, graded good with outstanding features by Ofsted in May, was one of those dropping just below the floor standard in Level 4 English and maths combined, after falling from 80% last year to 59% this year. Head teacher Jan Kewley said that while the school had succeeded in improving performance in literacy, which was above the national average, maths results were “much lower than usual”. The school has requested support from the LEA's senior maths consultant and put in place a comprehensive development plan for maths.

She said: “I am confident that our results next year will return to the higher level that we generally attain.”