Government figures released today (1 March) show that York is in the top 10 local authorities for Key Stage two to Key Stage three value added. The 'value added' score aims to assess how much the schools have helped pupils improve - and demonstrates the exceptional progress York pupils have made.
 
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) published final results for last year's Key Stage three Tests for 14 year olds.  The results show that York's secondary schools are continuing to make excellent progress and achieve results well above the national average.

The published results show that:

- York schools perform well above the national average with 77 pre cent of pupils achieving the expected level in English (compared to 73 per cent nationally); 82 per cent achieving the expected level in Mathematics (five per cent above the national average) and 78 per cent achieving the expected level in Science (compared to 72 per cent nationally).

- The value added score, the measure showing how much progress pupils make between Key Stage two and Key Stage three was sixth highest in the country out of 150 Local Authorities and an improvement on last year's high performance.

Patrick Scott, director of Children's Services, at City of York Council said: "These results show York pupils continue to be amongst the country's very best in terms of the progress made between Key Stages two and three. This is an excellent achievement given that schools in the authority are already doing so well."