Rotherham youngsters make the grade

St Alban’s Church of England School in Wickersley was hailed top of the class with 93 per cent of pupils achieving the expected standard in their reading, writing and maths this summer.

Bramley Sunnyside Junior School also saw 93 per cent of its pupils achieve the expected grade in their end of year SATs.

Cllr Gordon Watson, Rotherham Borough Council’s deputy leader and Cabinet member for children and young people’s services, said he was pleased the borough’s average was one per cent higher than that across the country at 54 per cent.

He 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 make sure that children get the best possible start to their education and, while the standards they achieve in reading, writing and mathematics are only part of the picture, it is good to see Rotherham once again achieving well in terms of education results, with some of the best results in the region.”

Despite the good figures overall, just 16 per cent of youngsters at Brookfield Primary Academy made the grade and only 18 per cent of year-six pupils at Thrybergh Academy and Sports College met the “expected standard” - which means they achieved a “scale score” of 100 or more in their reading and maths tests, and their teacher assesses them as “working at the expected standard” or better in writing.

Meanwhile, figures showed that pupils across Rotherham are making more progress in their maths and writing than had been expected.

On average, children received a progress score of one for their writing and 0.6 for their maths.

A progress score of 0 means pupils do about as well at Key Stage Two as those with similar prior attainment across the country. 

A positive score means they have made more progress.