EARLIER this week Swindon Council announced that it is spending £6.5m to rebuild Seven Fields.

And headteacher Zita McCormick is convinced that this will help to improve their league table position.

According to the table in 2005, 203 per cent of pupils achieved level four or above in the SATs.

This year that figure has dropped to 164 per cent.

But Ms McCormick said they had suffered a blip.

"Fifty per cent of our pupils had special educational needs, and some of those were transferred to special schools," she said.

"They were all precious and an absolute joy to teach, but it brought down our score for this year.

"But next year we are predicting that the results will be much higher - at least 70 per cent across the board."

In English 50 per cent of pupils attained a level four, 50 per cent in maths and 64 per cent in science.

Ms McCormick, who has worked as an Ofsted inspector, said she believes there is some top quality teaching in the town.

"I have seen some stunning teaching here, and that is just from other heads inviting me in to see how they work," she said.

"I think league tables are a good detail for parents but only provide a snapshot.

"I think we could look at expanding them to include other information that would be useful to parents thinking about sending their child to a certain school.

"Sadly we had a blip this year and it would have helped us if the table was focused on more detailed information."

Key stages

ALL Year 6 pupils are required to sit tests in English, maths and science during one week in May.

The tests are now in their 11th year.

This is how they work:

A child's education is divided into four Key Stages:

  • Key Stage 1 covers infants from five to seven
  • Key Stage 2 covers juniors from seven to 11
  • Key Stage 3 is the lower secondary from 11 to 14
  • Key Stage 4 is upper secondary from 14 to 16.

At the end of each Key Stage children are tested and the results for 11 and 16-year-olds are published in performance tables.

The National Curriculum sets levels of achievement for pupils aged five to 14 - most seven-year-olds are expected to reached level two, 11-year-olds level four and 14-year-olds level five or six.

In English, 11-year-olds take hour-long reading and writing tests, plus a 10-minute spelling test and five-minute handwriting test.

In maths, they take two papers of 45 minutes each. In one they are allowed to use a calculator, in the other they are not.

They also take a 20-minute mental maths test answering quickfire questions.

In science they take two papers, each of 35 minutes.

The overall percentage pass rate for each school is worked out by adding the percentage pass rate in English, maths and science together to produce a figure between 0 and 300 per cent.

The latter would represent a 100 per cent pass rate in all three subjects.