THE latest Government assessment tests on primary school children show standards of reading, writing and maths are improving after years of decline.

But hidden behind the inevitable league tables are some remarkable success stories in Craven.

For the first time figures are available for children who have taken the compulsory standard assessment tests (Sats) first at the age of seven and then in their final primary school year, aged 11.

These show that Skipton's Greatwood School is in the top quarter in the county for progress - in other words measuring how much pupils have improved between the tests at seven and then at 11.

Other schools in the town are showing real progress in raising literacy and numeracy standards with Ings, Christ Church, St Stephen's, Bradley and Water Street showing particularly strong evidence.

"What Greatwood school has done is raise attainment from well below average to the national expectation when they leave," said Bob Pike, North Yorkshire education adviser.

"Instead of going up by two levels, they are going up by much more than two levels from the age of seven to 11. Greatwood is one of the top performing schools in the county when you measure progress, rather than pure attainment, and you have to bear in mind that North Yorkshire is a very high performing county.

"League tables only describe absolute performance, they do not describe the progress made generally by all the pupils. This 'added value' as the jargon goes, is perhaps a more relevant way of measuring how a school is performing."

Mr Pike said that schools were now beginning to reap the benefits of special projects to raise achievement.

For example, Christ Church focused on a maths project when 1996 tests showed that 50 per cent of its pupils were achieving level four against a North Yorkshire average figure of 65 per cent.

Now the same school year shows 84 per cent have reached level four against the county average of 75 per cent.

"The evidence is that teachers are increasingly more confident about the literacy and numeracy strategies and we are looking forward to continuing improvement in what are already very good schools," said Mr Pike. "Parents and teachers round here know that what they are doing and the support they are giving is working and is working well."

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