About four fifths of the Bradford district’s ten and 11-year-old pupils were forecast to achieve the expected standards in core classroom subjects, according to results released by the Government.

The Department for Education yesterday published the outcome of SATs exams sat in primary schools this spring – but Bradford was one of 20 local authorities whose results were withheld due to the number of schools affected by a teachers’ boycott of the exams earlier this year.

Instead, the abilities of primary school leavers were judged by the findings of teacher assessments which all primaries carry out regardless of the exams.

The percentage of Bradford pupils achieving Level 4 or above in teacher assessments in English was 79 per cent, maths 80 per cent and science 82 per cent.

The national averages were: English and maths 81 per cent, and science 85 per cent.

Last year the marks were: English 75 per cent, maths 77 per cent and science 81 per cent.

The data ranks Bradford as joint 107th best performing local authority, up from 130th on 2009.

The district’s Key Stage Two exam results were withheld because only 79 out of 163 primary schools staged the tests.

Head teachers at the other schools joined a national boycott of the exams organised by unions the NAHT and NUT. They claimed the exams offered a crude measure of children’s abilities.

Ian Murch, Bradford branch secretary for the NUT, said: “Teacher assessments are based on a year’s work, not a few hours.

“They’re moderated to prevent any exaggerating of scores. They remove stress from children and give a truer picture of their abilities. Testing all children on one day in Year Six gives some children almost a year’s developmental advantage over others.”

Results for schools which did administer the tests are expected to be published later this year.