Head teachers from Holme Wood have hit back after the Conservative Party highlighted “shocking” educational inequality by comparing the exam results of their pupils with those from Addingham.

John McGowan, head at Knowleswood Primary, and Jayne Clarke, head at Ryecroft Primary, defended the performance of their pupils and said the picture painted by the Tories failed to give a balanced view.

Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove said that in Holme Wood, three per cent of 16-year-olds achieved five GCSEs including English and maths at grade A* to C in 2007, compared to 86.3 per cent of youngsters in Addingham.

Mrs Clarke said the negative picture of Holme Wood painted by the Office for National Statistics figures was “absolutely unacceptable”.

She said: “I have been at the school since January. Our culture is that everyone is a learner. Although a lot of our children have barriers to learning, barriers can be overcome.

“Yes our children come into school at an exceptionally low baseline but we add a tremendous amount of value. But we are not just achieving in terms of Sats but raising aspirations too.

“The thing that got us about the report was that Holme Wood is moving in an upward spiral and it claimed it was moving downwards.”

Mrs Clarke said the school’s exam results were rising.

Mr McGowan, head at Knowleswood for the past 14 years, said primary schools in Holme Wood had achieved outstanding results in their Key Stage Two Sats.

At Knowleswood, nearly 90 per of pupils achieved the Government benchmark of level four in maths, more than 90 per cent hit the target in science and more than 70 per cent in English.

“These excellent results are higher than the national and the Bradford averages in both maths and science and surpass the Government floor targets in English,” he said.

“The children in the school also exceeded the Government predictions with much higher scores that the Government statisticians expected.”