There are now "value-added" tables for 14 year olds' test results

The government, having faced down opponents of primary school tests, is publishing separately this year test result tables for 14 year olds.

They show grammar schools do very well by their pupils.

But the tables have been scorned by head teachers' leaders as flawed, and failing to have any useful purpose.

The government says that the tables are "vital" to monitoring the progress of teenagers.

There has been longstanding concern about the underachievement of pupils in the early years of secondary school.

'Flawed'

And the government has introduced another layer of school performance tables, this time for 14 year olds, to identify where intervention is necessary before pupils take formal exams.

The same information - showing test results and a "value added" measure - was also published last year.

What is new this year is the publication date. Ministers have deliberately separated these test results from the GCSE results - due out in a month's time - to highlight them.

School Standards Minister David Miliband said: "I believe that regular national testing helps support this improvement in schools."

"It provides a national benchmark for standards and helps ensure that children in poorer areas do not get left behind."

The tables, which do not include the independent schools that dominate the top of the GCSE rankings, show grammar schools performing strongly.

Among local authorities, Rutland, North Yorkshire, Buckinghamshire and Kingston-upon-Thames were at the top.

At the other end of the table, the City of Nottingham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Islington had the worst results.

'Spurious rank'

But head teachers have been scathing about the introduction of more league tables.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said the school rankings were "flawed, misleading and unnecessary".

"The league tables present a spurious rank order of schools, when the statistics on which they are based cannot sustain such detailed comparisons," said Mr Dunford.

He says it is well known that brighter pupils do well between the ages of 11 and 14 - so it is no surprise to see the grammar schools giving a good showing.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "Performance tables for 14 year olds are an unnecessary irrelevance. They serve no useful purpose when the tests themselves are of a totally different order to GCSEs or A-levels."

'Poisonous thorn'

Nationally there were improvements in the numbers of pupils reaching the expected levels, in English (up by 2%), maths (up by 4%) and science (up by 1%).

Shadow education secretary Tim yeo said: "These results show that the very schools Labour has been undermining for 30 years continue to perform outstandingly well.

"Crucially these schools do best at raising the performance of all levels of pupils regardless of their ability.

"We are determined that not a single grammar school will close.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis said: "League tables skew parent choice, fail to give informed choice and, most serious of all, condemn children with low performance to an educational underclass.