FEWER than 60 per cent of Worcestershire’s school children left primary school at the expected standard this year.

Key stage 2 Sats results, out yesterday, revealed only 57 per cent of the county’s ten and 11 year olds reached expected levels in reading, writing and mathematics - compared to 61 per cent nationally.

Worcestershire’s results had improved by 10 per cent on last year’s, when results were lower at most schools following the introduction of new tougher Sats exams.

Pupils in Worcestershire achieved progress scores of -0.9 for writing, -0.6 for reading and -1.3 for maths.

A score of 0 means pupils at the school do as well as their peers nationally and a negative score is below average. However, schools are not considered failing by the government until progress scores drop below -5 in reading, -5 in maths and -7 in writing.

The results put Worcestershire in the bottom fifth of local authorities in England.

Only 49 per cent of pupils at The De Montfort School, Evesham, reached expected levels - up from 20 per cent in 2016.

The school was well below average at -4.7 and below average at 2.3 in writing and 2.7 in reading compared with the national figure of -5 in reading and maths and -7 in writing.

Headteacher Guy Nichols said: “I suspect we are the most improved in Worcestershire but we needed to be. We are actually quite pleased about the fact that the school is up 19 per cent to 49 per cent. Of course, we are mindful of national benchmarks. We are no longer the bottom in Worcestershire and that is to do with the hard work of the staff and children – and the support of parents.”

In a way we would like to congratulate them, by moving significantly in the right direction.”

“We are conscious we have a long way to go.”

A table of results is available in the picture gallery, although the figures for a number of schools in the Vale were not available on the Department for Education's website.