HEADTEACHER Angela Smith has branded the league tables "a nonsense" after her school came bottom in Bolton.

Mrs Smith says the tables do not take account of special circumstances facing schools such as Johnson Fold, which has a large number of children with special educational needs and a high pupil turnover.

Seventeen of the 24 children in the class which took the tests last year had special educational needs.

A third joined part way through their education and many of these already had a string of schools behind them before going to Johnson Fold.

The day before the results were published, Mrs Smith was faced with admitting FOUR new children into three different classes. Already this academic year, 23 children have left and 21 have been admitted.

She defended her school's performance and said: "This makes a nonsense of league table figures, when you have a child admitted to the school in March, whose scores appear on your SAT results in May.

"We have a very able, hard-working and dedicated staff team, a very supportive governing body and parents' association and we are all constantly striving to improve.

"This was borne out by our recent positive Ofsted inspection report.

"We have set targets for improvement with the LEA, and will as always, do our utmost to secure the best education for children in our care.

"Our school has many challenges but is a happy and hard-working environment which offers many rewards not shown in the league tables."

Mrs Smith's comments are echoed by many education professionals who believe the tables should be replaced by a system which measures how much each school improves the education of pupils in their charge.

But today Education Secretary David Blunkett defended the system and vowed to continue publishing test results.

He said: "The tables add to the picture of education available to parents and enable them to make informed decisions about their childrens' future and their chosen primary school.

"They also mean local education authorities and schools can focus their attention on areas where action is needed."

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