IT is important to keep Key Stage One results in perspective – they are no guide to the long term academic outlook of each seven-year-old.

But Oxfordshire County Council is thumbing its nose at the parents of 6,600 children in its refusal to even discuss the latest results.

There are serious questions to be put that the local education authority should not be ducking.

Yes, the decline in results from last year is comparatively small, as is the difference with the national average, but there are some real concerns it has a responsibility to address.

Why is an affluent county like Oxfordshire still seeing statistics that say one in five of our seven-year-olds are not as proficient at writing as the Government believes they should be?

Reading and writing are the foundation blocks for the rest of a child’s education.

If large numbers are not where educators expect them to be, then that is a matter that should be addressed and discussed by our publicly-elected officials.

We do not expect every child to a shining star.

What we do expect, however, is a steady improvement in standards or at least a commitment from our education department to work towards that.

Our children deserve no less.