SECONDARY school children are continuing to pull ahead of the national average, according to the latest performance tables.

Despite lagging slightly behind in primary school tests, pupils make rapid progress and, by the time they are 13 and 14-years-old, they out-perform their contemporaries in English, science and maths.

The tables, based on the statutory assessment tests (SATs) pupils take at the end of Year 9, show the majority of Wiltshire's schools are continuing to improve, while Salisbury's grammar schools are again among Britain's best.

Bishops Wordsworth's School tops the league, with 98 per cent of boys making the grade in English and maths and 99 per cent reaching science targets.

Girls at South Wilts Grammar School did almost as well, with 99 per cent achieving the right results in science, 98 per cent in maths and 96 per cent in English.

Also performing well are The Burgate School and Ringwood School, in Hampshire, and St Edmunds Girls' School and Upper Avon School, in Salisbury, which have made significant progress in recent years.

However, not all schools reflect the trend.

Performances at St Joseph's and Westwood St Thomas, in Salisbury, and the Stonehenge School, Amesbury, remain below the national average, although there are promising signs of improvement in the value-added score, which reflects how much better pupils are doing since they joined the school.

Critics of the league tables emphasise that they only give a snapshot of a school's performance and say it is unfair to judge pupils on their results in just three subjects.

There will be a much better indication of how well secondary school pupils are faring when the tables based on GSCE results are published in January.

In the meantime, Wiltshire county council's director of education, Bob Wolfson, said the tables showed promising progress.

"Wiltshire pupils are continuing to perform above national averages in all three core subjects, and they are moving further ahead of these averages year on year," he said.

"I am delighted with the progress being made and with the excellent work being done by schools."