Primary school pupils in Camden and Westminster climbed to the summit of the Sats league table in central London this year, while standards also rose in Haringey and Barnet.
Results released this week for Key Stage 2 (KS2) tests taken by 11-year-olds in May – commonly known as Sats – showed improvements in all four boroughs compared with last year.
Girls continued to perform better than boys, according to the provisional Department for Education figures, but the gender gap narrowed in three of the four areas.
Camden and Westminster came joint top of the ranking of 14 councils classed as “inner London”, and joint third across the capital as a whole.
In both boroughs, 85 per cent of pupils reached the government’s “expected” standard of level four or above in reading, writing and maths.
Cllr Angela Mason, Camden Council’s cabinet member for children, highlighted the three per cent increase on 2013’s results in Camden.
She said the borough topping of the inner London table was a “marvellous achievement”.
Cllr Philippa Roe, leader of Westminster Council, was equally delighted, saying it was “evidence of the hard work, enthusiasm and talent of local pupils and schools”.
“The young students have certainly made an impressive start to their academic life – and I urge them to keep it up!” she added.
Barnet also surpassed the London-wide and national figures of 80 per cent and 79 per cent respectively, scoring 82 per cent.
However, the gender gap increased from five to seven percentage points in the “outer London” borough, with 85 per cent of girls reaching at least level four in the “three Rs” compared with 78 per cent of boys.
Girls performed two, three and six percentage points better in Westminster, Camden and Haringey respectively, all smaller intervals than in 2013.
Despite recording an improvement on last year, when 75 per cent gained at least level four, Haringey remained at the foot of the inner London ranking.
It tied with Hackney as 77 per cent reached the expected standard; only six boroughs, all in outer London, fared worse.
However, a spokesman for Haringey Council said the provisional results “slightly undersell” the borough’s improvement and will “almost certainly go up” when finalised in December.
Cllr Ann Waters, Haringey’s cabinet member for children and families, was pleased with the upward trajectory.
“These KS2 results show that there’s been continued improvement in the achievements of Haringey students in recent years,” she said.
“Not only have we seen a steady increase in the number of students performing well at KS2 level, but those students who continue their education in Haringey can be confident that they’re going on to schools which consistently beat national averages at both GCSE and A-level.
“As part of our Outstanding for All commitment to excellent education in Haringey, we will continue to work hard to ensure that the progress being made by Haringey’s schools is sustained.”
More than a quarter of pupils from Camden, Barnet and Westminster reached the highest standard, level five, in the three key areas, while 24 per cent did so in Haringey.
School reform minister Nick Gibb hailed students’ performance nationwide, saying “teachers and pupils deserve huge credit for such outstanding results”.
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