BRADFORD primary schools have proved to be among the best in the region for helping their pupils progress.

The Department for Education released the league tables based on Sats results today.

The figures show that the district's schools had Yorkshire and The Humber's second best progress score in reading from key stage one to the end of primary school and the third best for writing and maths.

According to the DfE figures, all the pupils at Burley Woodhead Primary met the expected standard in all three subjects, the only school to achieve that, while the worst performing school was the Christ Church Church of England Academy where only 27% of pupils met the expected standard.

Cllr Imran Khan, Portfolio Holder for education, employment and skills, said: “These tables are positive news for our district’s primary schools. Our overall position for reading, writing and maths has improved and we’re closing the gap on the national average.

"Compared to other Yorkshire and Humber local authorities, our reading progress score now ranks us in second position and our writing and maths progress scores rank us in third position respectively.

"We now rank joint fifth (up from seventh last year) against our statistical neighbours. Nationally we are joint 108th (up from 125th last year).

"We know there is more to do but it shows Bradford is moving in the right direction. Credit must go to school staff, parents and pupils who work every day to deliver better outcomes for our children.”

Ian Murch, President of the National Education Union in Bradford said: "Bradford schools and their staff have worked hard to get the results that they have and deserve to be congratulated.

"Schools would still prefer not to have these high stakes league tables. They put pressure on to narrow the curriculum to the things that are being tested, which are not the full range of things that we would all expect our children to be taught."