THE best and worst performing primary schools in south Wiltshire have been revealed with the publication of the 2012 league tables.

High flying schools include Alderbury and West Grimstead, Chilmark and Fonthill Bishop, Pitton and Whiteparish All Saints, which rated in the top ten schools across Wiltshire, as all students achieved the Government-led targets of level four in maths and English.

Alderbury and West Grimstead school headteacher Alison Small, who joined the school 18 months ago, said: “We are absolutely thrilled with the results.

“We are working really hard to raise standards and have a real focus on achievement across the whole school.”

The school, which was rated as ‘satisfactory’ by Ofsted inspectors in July last year, has just been graded ‘good’ in all areas in its latest Ofsted inspection.

Those judged to be poorly-performing in the national curriculum tests, or ‘Sats’, include Longford, Pembroke, St Martin’s and Wilton and Barford School.

Only a third of pupils at Longford achieved the benchmark of above 60 per cent - the lowest in the county - while Pembroke achieved 43 per cent, Wilton and Barford 53 per cent and St Martin’s, 58 per cent.

However the figures for those making the expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics, from year 2 to the end of year 6, are much higher at the four schools, with all well above the benchmark.

Pembroke School headteacher John Wells said: “The league tables do not take account of pupils with special needs or pupil mobility, where children join or leave the school during Key Stage 2 - they are based on 'raw data' which can be misleading.

“Our results this year are the best ever achieved by the school and in 2013 will be even better in terms of progress and attainment.

“Our data shows 90 per cent of our children are making the expected progress in English and 80 per cent in maths this year.”

He added: “In our recent Ofsted monitoring visit inspectors acknowledged we have achieved the floor standards in English and were close in maths.”

The number of pupils achieving the expected level four and above in both English and maths across the county has increased to 78 per cent, a rise of three percent on 2011 figures.