THE results of this year's unpopular Sats have been revealed showing many Malvern primary schools struggling to reach expected levels.

Only a handful of schools in Malvern were above the expected educational standard this year.

The best performers, Malvern Wells Primary, Leigh and Bransford Primary, Somers Park Primary and Welland Primary, all achieved more than the Government's demand for 65 per cent of pupils to hit expected levels in reading, writing and maths.

However, many others fared much worse in line with poor results across Worcestershire's primary schools where, on average, just 47 per cent of ten and 11 year olds in the county achieved the expected levels.

Among the worst performers were St Joseph's Catholic School, where only 17 per cent of children reached the expected level while at St Matthias and Northleigh less than a third of children, 29 per cent, were at the expected standards for reading, writing and maths.

This year's results are the first since major changes were made to the National Curriculum and how results are recorded.

Previously, pupils were expected to reach level 4 of national curriculum levels and have made two levels of progress.

However, the old levels have now been scrapped and instead schools must achieve at least 65 per cent of pupils reaching an expected standard (a scaled score).

They must also achieve sufficient progress scores in reading, writing and maths, reaching at least -5 in English, -5 in maths and -7 in writing to be above the floor standard.

The Sats process was deeply unpopular with both teachers and parents this year after children were reported to have been reduced to tears by the increased difficulty of the tests.

This reflected changes to the National Curriculum in 2014, which the government believed were needed to raise the bar across the country.

However, some heads said the tests were too hard and that teachers had been left in the dark about what would be on the papers until the last minute.

Some parents across the country withdrew their children from school in support of the Let Our Kids be Kids campaign which said the Sats were stressful and should be scrapped.

The furore forced the government into a climbdown on some of its more unpopular reforms.

Education Secretary Justine Greening also reassured schools the results from this year's tougher tests would not be used alone to judge their performance.

Therese Langford, head at St Joseph's Catholic School, said she felt the school's results were not a fair reflection of the progress and changes taking place at the school.

She said: "We had 20 children and eight of them were one mark under the 100.

"Our maths result brought our overall figure down.

"There were some very difficult questions which put off children who were close to the threshold.

She added: "I don't believe you can demonstrate progress for children at Key Stage 1 from children who are now doing a different curriculum."

A table showing results for schools in South Worcestershire are in the picture gallery.