Tables don’t tell full story

If you judge a school solely by its position in Government league tables you’re doing it a disservice.

There is more to any school than the grades at the end of an exam paper.

Just as in life you would never judge a person by the number of certificates they have acquired, so the quality of a school should be more than the average grades it produces.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with singing the praises of those who have achieved well in the Key Stage 2 tests we reveal today.

League tables are a divisive subject in education. But we should take heart from some of the outcomes from the latest results. Not least the fact that, according to the Department for Education, 68% of pupils on Wearside are meeting the national standard for reading, writing and maths - higher than the national average of 64%.

Top of the pops, is St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School, with an impressive 97% meeting the expected standard.

And we’re delighted to give head Damian Groark the opportunity to sing his staff and pupils’ praises.

But this snapshot of school performance should not be the be-all and end-all for schools, as union bosses are keen to stress.

Kevin Courtney, of the National Education Union, said: “The test scores reported by the Department for Education tell us little about the overall quality of children’s education, yet they continue to dominate many aspects of school life.

“They come at a cost. In the pursuit of high SATs scores, teachers’ workload is intensified and children’s well-being is damaged.”

There’s arguments on all sides, but when choosing a school, it should never be a case of SATs your lot!