The ongoing improvement in children's performance in City of York Council schools has continued with the best ever set of National Curriculum and GCSE results.

The latest compilation of figures features in a report to the council's Officer in Consultation with Executive Member meeting for Education next week (Tuesday, November 20).

The tests, in core subjects such as English, maths and science, show improvements in already high standards across the stages at ages seven, 11 and 14.

All the figures show that children in York schools are performing better than the national average - in some cases by as much as eight percentage points.

At Key Stage One (seven-year-olds) children have shown a continuing improvement in reaching the expected standard for maths (87 percent compared to the national average of 84 percent); writing (88 percent; 86 percent); spelling (80 percent; 75 percent) and maths (92 percent; 75 percent.

At Key Stage Two 79 percent of 11-year-olds met the basic standards in English; 75 percent in maths and 89 percent in science (a rise of 3 percentage points on last year). The average national figures are 75, 71 87 percent.

The Key Stage Three figures (for 14-year-olds) shows significant improvements with an eight percent rise in those meeting the basic science standards and two percent rises in the other subjects. The York figure for English is now 71 percent compared to a 64 percent national average. The figures for maths and science are 71 percent (66 percent nationally) and 74 percent (66 percent).

The new figures have helped York to leap up the rankings in government league tables for local education authorities - in some cases by between 10 and 15 places. At Key Stage Two York is 19th of 151 authorities in English, 23rd in maths and 37th in science. At Key Stage Three York is 17th in science, 21st in English and 34th in maths.

Richard Wyborn, the council's information manager, said, "More children are meeting the basic standards but we have also seen large increases in the number of children achieving the higher levels."

Performance in GCSEs also improved this year faster than the national rate of improvement, with 54 percent of 16-year-olds achieving at least five A*-C grades - a rise of 1.4 percent on the equivalent figure for 2000.

Councillor Janet Looker, the council's executive member for education, said, "Naturally, I am delighted at these latest figures which is a tribute to the hard work of students and teachers and the support of parents and governors.

"Although there is a lot more to education than mere statistics and tables it is at least good to see that York schools are continuing to do the very best for children and young people in York and we will use these statistics as a tool to let us go forward with continuous improvement."

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