Key Stage 2 test results

English 2000: 75% 2001: 75% Target: 80% Maths 2000: 72% 2001: 71% Target: 75%

In reports published on Tuesday, the schools inspectorate, Ofsted, is critical of the quality of some of the teaching in the national numeracy and literacy strategies.

It points out that the increases in national curriculum test scores for 11 year olds have at best levelled off, and are running behind target.

But the chief inspector, Mike Tomlinson, has said he thinks results will pick up again from next year because younger pupils do seem to be performing better now.

Ministers accept that the results in the tests for 11-year-olds - to be revealed for each school in the annual league tables on Wednesday - are a key test of their education policies.

Literacy hour

In Labour's first term, the focus was on improving maths and English teaching in primary schools through the introduction of the daily literacy hours and maths lessons.

In a report on the first year of the special maths lessons, published a year ago, Ofsted said they had had "an encouraging start".

A similar report on the more-established literacy hours said they had had a major impact on the teaching of reading but that writing standards remained "a significant national issue".

Now the inspectors say that too many teachers are still failing to teach the numeracy lesson well and that some aspects of English, such as phonics - the recognition of sounds - are not well taught either.

The quality of teaching pupils how to write has shown "a steady improvement" over the year and test results have improved - but are "still too low" and lag "well behind" attainment in reading.

Writing focus

Reading standards fell slightly this year - perhaps because teachers were concentrating on writing, the inspectors say.

But there has been no overall improvement over the last three years in the quality of teaching and learning in independent work during the literacy hour.

The gap between reading and writing in performance terms is still too great

Mike Tomlinson Chief Inspector of Schools

The inspectors say it is worrying that so many pupils are spending this time unproductively.

The report on numeracy says there needs to be better assessment by teachers of their pupils' progress.

"The diagnosis of pupils' misunderstandings and teachers' ability to focus the teaching in subsequent lessons to deal with them are the important challenges in mathematics for primary schools, and hold the key to higher standards," says the report.

It warns that weak leadership by head teachers has hindered progress in one in seven schools, an increase over last year.

"This is a worrying trend."

Ofsted notes that the initial improvement in test results has not been maintained.

English results

In English, 75% of pupils reached the expected level last year. This year saw no further improvement, leaving the results still five points short of the government' s target of 80% by 2002.

In maths, 72% reached the expected level last year, but that fell by one point this year to 71%, leaving a further improvement of four percentage points needed to meet next year's target.

Mr Tomlinson said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "In a number of schools there have been significant changes of staffing over the year and that has in a sense affected the continuity of teaching and might well have affected the achievement of pupils."

Hopes for future

"Teachers have made a great effort to improve the teaching of writing and have met with some success," he said.

But Mr Tomlinson said the indications were that pupils coming up to the age of 11 were showing higher levels of achievement than previously.

"We are very hopeful that next year and in years to come there will be improvements that everyone wants to see," he said.

On Monday, the government announced the allocations among England's 150 local education authorities of �192m for 2002-03, specifically to raise standards in English and maths.

Much of this will pay for booster classes for 10 and 11-year-olds and extra training for teachers.