READING, writing and maths have improved among primary school pupils in disadvantaged communities in Oxford over the past three years as part of a council project.

Eleven out of the 12 schools taking part in Oxford City Council’s Education Attainment Project saw results improve in at least one of the categories.

The project aimed to have 95 per cent of cent of children in disadvantaged areas achieving level two in reading by the age of seven by 2017.

Schools taking part in the project were able to take advantage of the KRM programme, which uses new teaching methods to raise attainment.

Children are taught to read with 15-minute exercises three times a day while the maths programme focuses on counting skills, balancing equations and mathematical language in similar 15-minute chunks.

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The schools could also take part in a leadership programme run by Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University that allows headteachers from schools across the country to work together to improve attainment.

Not all schools chose to take part in all parts of the project. Cutteslowe Primary School did not take part in KRM but headteacher Jon Gray praised the leadership programme.

He said: “It has been really great to be able to meet other heads. For us it was ultimately about schools helping each other. It's about sharing ideas and learning from other schools.”

City council spokesman Chofamba Sithole said: “The KRM programme is under review and options to support further education attainment improvement are being considered.”

The city council’s scrutiny committee will meet to discuss the success of the project tonight.

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