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The "best" primary school in England attributes its success in the national tests for 11 year olds to a clear focus on helping pupils perform to the best of their abilities.

Compared to 10 years ago, when you got 20 applicants for every job advert, you're lucky to get one application now

Head of England's top-performing primary school

But the head teacher says a shortage of applicants is hindering efforts to improve further.

The school which tops this year's league tables is South Farnham Community Junior in Surrey, which achieved "beacon school" status last year.

Every one of its 124 pupils achieved at least the expected level in English, maths and science.

Pupils at 178 other schools did just as well as those at South Farnham, achieving the maximum possible score of 300, but it comes top in that it had the largest number taking the tests.

The head teacher, Andrew Carter, told BBC News Online: "It sounds boring, but we really do try to make 100% of our pupils successful.

"We work really closely with parents to help and support their children as part of that process."

Mr Carter said all the pupils were treated as individuals, and were encouraged to excel in what they were good at.

"If there are any weaknesses, we also work with these very hard."

Constant testing

He said the school had no shortage of staff, although trying to find more to improve its service even further was not easy.

Tests are only one aspect of school life

Mr Carter said: "I admit that compared to 10 years ago, when you got 20 applicants for every job advert, you're lucky to get one application now.

"But we are not short-staffed. It would just be nice to recruit even more teachers to the school."

He also denied that pupils were now put under too much pressure, with an increasing number of tests during their school careers.

"We don't have exam pressure here, what we strive to do is to teach pupils everything they need to know over four years, and then the test at the end is an opportunity for them to show off what they have learned."

Raw results 'mislead'

Languishing at the other end of the national table is St Radigund's Community Primary School in Dover.

Recruitment of staff has been a problem which has had an accumulated effect on general progress throughout the school

Head of England's worst-performing primary

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

In a statement, the head teacher, Jenny Cavell, said she accepted that the results were low.

"Obviously, Key Stage 2 results are only a small snapshot taken of a school and results can be misleading," she said.

More than three quarters of the children had been identified as having special educational needs - although the official figures record none of those as having taken the tests.

On the up

She also had been hit by teacher shortages.

"Recruitment of staff has been a problem which has had an accumulated effect on general progress throughout the school.

"Despite this, our pupils are making progress," she said.

The results of tests taken by seven year olds - which are not published nationally - were much better this year.

"Teachers, parents and governors have worked tirelessly this year to raise standards and improve the quality of education for our children.

"Initiatives concerning literacy and numeracy, assessing results and staff changes have all resulted in improved performance generally throughout the school," she added.

The Schools Minister, Cathy Ashton, congratulated teachers, heads, support staff and pupils on the overall progress shown in the tables.

But she said the government remained determined to see further improvements to ensure that more primary pupils "progressed to secondary school with the right level of education".

Targets slipping

The overview of these school-by-school results, published earlier, had already indicated that progress towards the government's targets had stalled.

The targets are that, by next year, 80% of pupils will be reaching the standard expected for their age in English, and 75% in maths.

This year, the national figures were 75% in English - the same as last year - and 71% in maths, a fall of one point on the year before.

Targets have not been set for science.

The general secretary of the big NASUWT teachers' association, Nigel de Gruchy, said "blips" of this kind were to be expected.

Data being 'misused'

"Given the huge difficulties over staffing, the continuing problems of excessive workload and pupil indiscipline, it is frankly amazing that standards have generally continued to rise," he said.

His union fully supported the gathering of school performance data.

But it remained totally opposed to the "grotesque misuse" of this information by pitching schools of totally different circumstances against one another in national league tables, he said.

The interests of education would best be served by schools' publishing their results alongside national averages, placed in their local context.

"That would genuinely help parental choice, without the annual humiliation of disadvantaged schools, in all but a few exceptional cases, inevitably propping up the league tables," he said.