Key success for children

Results for this year's Key Stage 2 assessment tests taken by 11-year olds show a marked improvement across the town.

Seventy six per cent of pupils met the expected standard in English, 72 per cent in maths and 84 per cent in science.

Eighty per cent of children came up to standard in reading - among the highest in Yorkshire.

The figures released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, show an overall improvement across the county by around one per cent. But in Rotherham the improvement ranged from one per cent in maths up to three per cent in English, putting the town among the best performers in the key subjects.

It was only just behind Doncaster in its performance figures - and ahead of Barnsley and Sheffield.

A Rotherham Council spokesman said: "It means that our 11-year-olds are doing better. Their performance is above the national average, particularly in English, maths and science."

But many schools are not coming up to scratch in writing - with just 62 per cent of pupils meeting the expected standard. Test scores from Sheffield's 11-year-olds have inched upwards this summer - following two years of stagnation that saw the city's national ranking slump.

Results in science, maths and English all improved by one per cent - but are still between five and seven per cent behind national averages.

Schools Minister Lord Adonis says that since 1997 100,000 more pupils were achieving the standard expected of them in English, while 90,000 more were achieving it in maths.

He said the Government was planning to introduce new measures to accelerate learning with an emphasis on phonics - sounds - in early reading teaching and more mental arithmetic in maths. But opposition MPs say four out of 10 children are still leaving school without an adequate grasp of basic subjects.