PUPILS in York have scored above the national average in the latest Key Stage 2 performance results and are among the top performers in the region.

City of York Council welcomed the latest official figures which show children in the city ranked joint first in Yorkshire and Humber, alongside Calderdale and East Riding.

The Department for Education (DfE) yesterday published the final results for the June 2013 Key Stage 2 tests for 11-year-olds. In York, at Level 4+ (the expected level of achievement for that age) 77 per cent of pupils achieved Level 4 or above in reading, writing and maths (two percentage point above the national average) while 25 per cent achieved the higher level 5 (four percentage points above the national average).

However, progress results for the city are just below the national average, with 90 per cent of pupils in writing, 87 per cent in reading and 86 per cent in maths making at least two levels of progress.

Coun Janet Looker, cabinet member for children, young people and education, said: “These results show that York’s primary schools continue to perform well against the national picture. This is down to the hard work of pupils and school staff in achieving positive results across the city and our focus for 2013/14 must be to build on this, and to work in particular to improve our progress results.”

North Yorkshire education bosses admitted their test results for the region were “disappointing” and they have challenges to face. The Key Stage 2 results showed 73 per cent of pupils within the county council’s area gained level four or above in reading, writing and maths in 2012/13, two per cent lower than the year before and lower than the national average. The authority said North Yorkshire was still in the top 20 per cent UK-wide for its school performance at Key Stage 4 and GCSE level, but it had “work to do” at primary school stage.

It also said the number of primary schools in the region judged as providing “good” or “outstanding” education had risen to more than 80 per cent in recent months.

Coun Arthur Barker, executive member for schools, said: “We are already taking steps to transform the way we work with schools to drive up standards. We have been studying carefully how best practice is achieved across the country and we will be taking a robust approach to driving this forward.”

East Riding of Yorkshire Council said 77 per cent of Year Six pupils achieved level four or above at Key Stage Two, one per cent above last year. There was also a three per cent rise, to 22 per cent, in pupils achieving level five or above. The results took East Yorkshire to 55th in the national rankings out of 152 local authorities.

Coun Julie Abraham, portfolio holder for children, young people and education, said: “These results have been achieved in the same year when more than half of the primary schools inspected improved their Ofsted grade, which is another cause for celebration.”