PERFORMANCE figures for primary schools in Worcestershire show the county has been ranked as one of the lowest attaining local authorities in the country.

The figures show 76 per cent of Key Stage 2 pupils in Worcestershire achieved level four or above in reading, writing and maths - the standard expected of 11-year olds.

The national average is 80 per cent.

Worcestershire was joint seventh from the bottom with Norfolk, Bradford and Walsall.

Poole and Medway were the lowest attaining authorities with 73 per cent.

Councillor John Campion, cabinet member for children and families said: "We are pleased that the vast majority of Key Stage 2 pupils have achieved a great set of results and that reading results have increased compared to last year.

"We are continuing to work closely with our schools to provide appropriate support to enable improvements to be made.

"As a county, our schools perform higher than the national average at Key Stage 4 and we are confident that we will rise to mirror this with Key Stage 2 so that pupils receive the education they deserve."

Among the schools enjoying good results was Callow End CE primary school where 100 per cent of the 11 pupils tested achieved the standard - for the second year running.

Headteacher Sue Parker said: "It's absolutely fantastic.

"We are delighted. It's the result of everybody 's hard work all the way through the school.

"It's a really big team effort."

Also doing well were pupils at Grimley and Holt Primary School where all 12 of its eligible pupils achieved the standard.

In Droitwich, 84 per cent of pupils at Witton Middle School achieved the standard while 76 per cent of Westacre Middle School pupils did so.

However, eight per cent of schools in Worcestershire - or nine schools - failed to reach the government's floor standard of 65 per cent achieving the level four or above in reading, writing and maths.

Among them was Dines Green Primary School which fell from 68 per cent of students achieving the standard last year to 53 per cent in 2015.

Headteacher Sara Longmire said: "A key focus for us is the progress of the children.

"In reading, 90 per cent made two levels of progress, in writing it was 66 per cent and in maths it was 90 per cent of our children who made two levels of progress.

"A number of that particular year group found writing more difficult which brought our figures down.

"Our recent Ofsted monitoring visit found that we had a compelling vision of the improvements the school need to take.

"English and writing for us is a core driver for this year.

"I think there are very exciting times ahead at Dines Green."

Also falling below the standard was The Fairfield Community Primary School where only 40 per cent of the pupils achieved level four or above in reading, writing and maths.

However, this was a dramatic increase on last year when only eight per cent of its pupils achieved the standard.

Interim headteacher Vivienne Cranton said: "It's a sizeable improvement and we are expecting it to continue to rise.

"We project to be over the floor standard this coming year.

"We have high expectations of our children but it does take time to fill gaps in knowledge.

"There have been several changes of staff and our teaching and learning is improving all the time."

*See the full league table in tomorrow's Worcester News