SPECULATION is rife that primary school SATS results are now the worst in the country after Thurrock Council refused to publish the results.
Year after year, the Key Stage 2 results are sent to all media outlets with attached statements.
But after weeks requesting the information, the council, late last night, informed all the newspapers that they would not be publishing them.
They informed the papers that they would need to make individual requests to all 42 primary schools.
The schools do not return for another three weeks.
Sources now believe that the primary’s have now gone from 149 out of 151 education authorities in the country to rock bottom.
A spokesperson for Thurrock Council commenting on the unpublished results said:
“Thurrock’s main challenge is to improve English results for boys. Boys in Thurrock do less well in reading and writing than boys nationally. Just over six out of ten boys nationally reach level 4 in writing, but only just over half in Thurrock,
“Primary schools in Thurrock are improving maths results — and improving in comparison with national standards. But while eight out of ten children across the country reached level 4 in maths at age 11 this year, in Thurrock it is still only seven out of ten.
“However, many of Thurrock’s schools do better than schools nationally and some do much better. Thurrock Council’s aim is for school to do at least as well as the national average and it will continue working with schools to build on achievements so far.
“Nationally, just over seven in ten pupils achieved level 4 in both English and maths — in Thurrock it was just under that fraction.
“Across the country girls did better than boys and that is reflected locally, particularly in English, reading and writing.
“Girls in Thurrock have caught up with boys in maths, as they have done nationally.
“Test results for each school “belong” to them and should be released by them, individually.
Cllr Diana Hale, Thurrock’s portfolio holder for education, said: “We know that improvement at Key Stage 2 is an imperative for Thurrock and we are working hard with schools to that end.
“All the children and teachers worked hard last year and improvements have been made.
“We need to build on that and we look forward to another year of enthusiasm when schools reopen in September.”
Unfortunately the amount of primary school children in Thurrock that are EAL (English as additional language) has increased which has a large effect on both those that do not speak English and those that are held back due to teachers having to provide the extra support to these pupils.
SATS are and always will be manipulated within schools and are not a true reflection of the teaching standards within an establishment, the sooner that the Givernment abolish these league tables the better.