The number of primary schools in England where all the 11 year olds got top marks in their national curriculum tests has jumped from 148 last year to 179 this year.

Of the 12,789 schools for which results were published on Wednesday, the results at 52% improved, year-on-year, but got worse at 47%. The others showed no change.

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Two years ago, three quarters of the schools were showing an improvement in their English, maths and science tests.

And in 2001, no schools managed the top combined score of 300 for four years in a row, whereas two did so last year.

The "top" school - by virtue of having the largest number of pupils getting 100% in each of their tests - was South Farnham Community Junior in Surrey.

Low score

At the other end of the table, two schools scored nothing because their results were annulled for cheating.

More schools than ever before achieved the highest possible score

The worst performer was St Radigund's Community Primary School in Dover.

Its 23 pupils averaged an aggregate score of just 52 out of 300 - down from 138 last year.

This year, for the first time, the Department for Education has also published an "average point score" for schools.

This is worked out by allocating points not only to those who reach the national curriculum level expected for their age, but also to those working below it - and above it.

Wider measure

The thinking is that it better reflects the achievement of all a school's pupils. It assigns points to those who otherwise would count for nothing - but is weighted to give most to those working above the expected level.

On this measure, the "top" school was Urchfont C of E Primary in Wiltshire, whose 11 pupils averaged 33.7 points.

The worst on this measure was Chace Primary in Coventry, whose 12 pupils averaged 19.8 points.

The national average was 27.3 points.

High fliers - and fallers

The "most improved" school this year was Osmani Primary School in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets.

It headed the list of 103 schools whose aggregate scores have risen consistently over four years - in its case, from 38 to 268, a gain of 230.

The most spectacular increase over just one year was seen at Wandle Primary in Wandsworth, south-west London, which was the worst performer in last year's table.

It went from an aggregate score of 41 last year to 240 this year - a rise of 199 to put it above the national average of 233.

The biggest fall - excluding schools caught cheating - was at St John's Roman Catholic Primary School, Rochdale, which went from 261 down to just 94.

Absences

Significant numbers of pupils were absent for the tests there. This is a fear all schools have, because the results are reported against the numbers eligible for testing, not those who actually sat the tests.

The same factor apparently counted against Hutton Rudby primary in North Yorkshire, one of the two schools last year which had achieved a "perfect" 300 four years in a row.

One of its 22 Year 6 pupils was absent for each of the tests and its total fell to 289.

The other top-performer of recent years, Shenington primary in Oxfordshire, disappears from the tables altogether.

Results are not published for schools with 10 or fewer eligible pupils - 966 of them altogether - and Shenington had only nine.

Broadly speaking, schools with high aggregate scores also had high points scores, but differences do emerge.

For example, Bishops Tawton primary in Devon had an aggregate score of only 200, well below the average of 233, but hit the national average point score of 27.3.

Truancy

Also new in the primary school tables this year are figures for "unauthorised absence" - truancy.

The school with the worst record for the number of sessions missed - 11.2% - appears to be Lancasterian Junior School in the London borough of Haringey.

But the local education authority said this was a computer error, and the actual figure was closer to 2.8%.

That left the Good Shepherd Catholic Primary School in Croydon, south London, as the poorest performer, with 10.6% of half days missed.

The Department for Education has admitted misleading people when it published the secondary school tables two weeks ago.

It said specialist schools had improved their performance by 1.3 percentage points this year, against 0.6 for non-specialists.

It now says the two figures were calculated differently - and should have read 1.3 and 1.0.