GREEN Lane Primary School has finished in a top five position in the Department of Education’s national league tables.
The school’s progress and performance in reading, writing and maths has secured it fourth place out of 125 similar school in England, and eighth out of all 230 primary schools in County Durham.
The league tables measure children’s progress from their achievement at age seven in year two, to their achievement aged 11 in year six.
Headteacher Rob Goffee said while the county league table clumped all schools together, the national figures compare schools that are similar in size and have a similar number of pupils on free school meals or special needs.
Explaining the school’s success, Mr Goffee said: “I think we have big expectations in all the children.
“We believe every child can achieve and we don’t put a ceiling on success.
“Where a child has a particularly need, we have excellent special needs support to personal care to help the child succeed.
“We have great depth in reading, which is a fabulous skill to pass on to secondary school.”
Referring to the school’s Church of England ethos, Mr Goffee added: “It is also the fact that we do believe in respect for all and the children live and breathe that.”
Points are scored for maths, reading and writing.
Green Lane performed particularly well at maths, with its score of 3.3 well above average. The writing score of 2.4 was above average and the reading score of 2.1 was rated average.
Green Lane was in the top ten per cent of primary schools in country for maths.
Year six teacher Alec Lees said: “We are thrilled. With every passing year of status we have had year-on-year progress.”
Year six pupils are also buzzing with excitement over their achievement.
Joseph Bouazizi said: “I think the school has done quite well with getting where we are. Maths is not my strong point, but I do quite like science because you get to do experiments.”
Fellow pupil Jessica Beesley added: “We have improved in math and English. My favourite lesson is English because I like to write stories.”
Harry Gilbert added: “I think it is great we made it to the top four. It took some team effort with a touch of excellence.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
