Sir – I am puzzled by the incomplete use of the Department for Education’s (DfE) own statistics that appeared in The Oxford Times (and many other newspapers) on December 22 (Council calls primary results basically rubbish).
If, as I do, one takes the view that arbitrarily set ‘floor targets’ for all pupils are not nearly as meaningful as the data on the percentage of pupils making the progress that is expected of them, then why not publish this information for your readers as well?
The comparison with ‘all England schools’ can be misleading but one can at least reasonably conclude that although progress in mathematics lags behind that in English, a significant number of city schools are in fact doing very well for their pupils.
It may also be worth reflecting on a recent parliamentary answer which revealed that of 152 local education authorities, expenditure per child in primary schools was higher than that in Oxfordshire in 133 of them.
Frank Newhofer, Oxford
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