Primary league table plan
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Education Editor
A local authority is to publish the first school league table for seven- year-olds after a study showed that schools make an important difference to children's progress even in the first two years of primary school.
The Government has decided not to publish league tables for primary schools based on national tests for seven-year-olds. Teachers argue that pupils' social background has more effect than schools on the achievement of the youngest children.
Research among 1,700 four and five-year-olds in the London borough of Wandsworth, released yesterday, will form the basis of the table.
Dr Steve Strand, the authority's head of research, compared the scores of children when they were tested at five with those in the national tests for seven-year-olds.
When pupils were tested on entering school, the results they might be expected to get at seven were predicted. After the results of the tests were known, the actual scores were compared with those predicted.
Dr Strand said: "We can identify differences between schools in the progress made by their pupils. But we are still some way from being able to say what it is that schools do that makes this difference."
The study also found that children who had received nursery education scored higher in the assessment at five than those who did not. Pupils who changed school between five and seven did not score lower marks than predicted.
Wandsworth was the first authority to introduce testing for five-year- olds. Ministers are considering a proposal from the Prime Minister to assess all children when they start school and some other local authorities, such as Birmingham, have begun to do so.
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