Official test results published on Thursday, February 28, 2008 show that the highest number of Year 9 Nottingham City pupils reached national standards in English last year along with the best ever maths and science results.

The new figures out today are for the Key Stage 3 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) taken by Year 9 pupils last year. They confirm that Nottingham pupils are improving at a faster rate than the national average. And instead of the English results falling, as indicated in the provisional results announced in August, they improved by 3 percentage points in Nottingham compared to a national increase of 1 percentage point.

The official Key Stage 3 results also confirm that the number of Nottingham 14-year-olds achieving national standards in Science increased by 2% compared to a national increase of 1%, while in Maths the figure remained the same this year despite a 1% fall nationally.

Councillor Mohammed Ibrahim, Nottingham City Council Assistant Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services, said: "It is great news that far from dropping in English, our 14-year olds did better than ever in both English and Science Key Stage 3 tests last year and held their own in Maths despite a national drop. It means that our Key Stage 3 pupils, along with teenagers of all ages in the City, are doing better than ever and continuing to close the gap with pupils in other parts of the country. Nottingham's hard work towards higher standards is succeeding.”

The English results of three schools, Bluecoat, Trinity and William Sharp, had been omitted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families from August’s provisional figures. This had given a lower figure than the final results published today.

Even without the revised English results, Nottingham is one of the most improved local authorities in the country at Key Stage 3. After the publication of the provisional results last summer Schools Minister Jim Knight, said: "I would like to congratulate pupils, parents and teachers in Nottingham.  It is one of the most improved Local Authorities in the country at Key Stage 3 - since 1998 there has been a 15 percentage point increase in English and a 27 percentage point increase in maths (level 5 or above).  Everyone who has worked hard should be really proud of their achievements.  

“The Key Stage 3 tests for 14-year olds are a great indicator for success at GCSE so this bodes well for the future. However, it is important that we keep pushing.  There is still more to do and we want every child to do their best at every stage of school."

4th March2008