Wide gulf in school standards revealed
THREE schools have shown the gulf in the standard of education provided for young pupils in Runcorn and Widnes according to official data.
Cronton Church Of England (CE) Primary in Widnes was in the top 10 for the number of pupils achieving the expected standard (89%) and also the top 10 for the number achieving high scores (26%), while Aston By Sutton Primary in Runcorn was one of the top 10 performing primaries in Cheshire for students achieving high scores (33%) in their tests, although it ranked more modestly and within the normal range for those achieving the expected standard (67%). Their performances contrasted against Westfield Primary School on Clayton Crescent in Runcorn, which was among the worst performing 10 primary schools in Cheshire where only 24% of pupils achieved the expected standard – the third worst in Cheshire – and 0% of students achieved high scores, and its writing progress score was classed as ‘well below average’.
Westfield Primary was graded as ‘requires improvement’ following its most recent Ofsted inspection last year.
Cronton is located ● inside the Knowsley council area and Aston By Sutton Primary is part of Cheshire West And Chester territory.
The best-performing primary school in Halton in terms of the number of pupils achieving the expected standard was St Michael’s Catholic Primary School (87%) in Ditton, Widnes, while the Halton primary with the largest number of pupils achieving high scores was Pewithall in Runcorn on 27% of pupils.
Wincle CE Primary School in Macclesfield and Evelyn Street Community Primary School in Warrington were the bestperforming primary schools in Cheshire.
The league tables are based on Kay Stage 2 results.
At the end of Year 6, pupils take national curriculum assessments more commonly known as SATs, which cover reading, maths, grammar, punctuation and spelling.
They must also com- ● plete a teacher assessment in reading, writing, maths and science.
To reach the expected standard, pupils must achieve a scaled score of 100 or more in their read- ing and maths tests, as well as being judged to be either ‘reaching the expected standard’ or ‘working at greater depth’ in the writing teacher assessment.