BARRY Hickey, the headteacher of St Joseph's Primary School in Devizes, has cast doubt on the value of school league tables, despite his school having the best English results at Key Stage 2 in the whole county.

Eighty-five per cent of last year's Year Six pupils achieved level five in the subject. The Standard Attainment Tests for that age only demand that children achieve level four.

Mr Hickey said his pupils' score was 14 per cent better than the next school and he suspects not many schools in the country scored 85 per cent or more in level five for English.

But he said: "I do not believe performance tables give an accurate reflection of the quality of education offered by schools. All schools and children are different. Performance tables reflect test scores of a particular group of children at a particular time.

"All children have different needs and sometimes these are special. Some schools will have more children who require more support than others. Children who do not attain level four or beyond require just as much high quality teaching as a child who achieves level five.

"I don't want us to be seen as a hotbed of literacy. That is not what education is all about. One year the pupils may get good results and the next year they may be not so good. This is a reflection of a whole lot of variables, not just the quality of teaching."

In the tables supplied to the Gazette by the local education authority last week, the percentage of children achieving level five in English was given as 27, not 85. We acknowledge this was incorrect.