A MERSEYSIDE council made the national top 10 for teaching the “three Rs” to primary school pupils.

Interim Government figures showed 86% of 11-year-olds in St Helens achieved at least a Level 4, the standard expected of their age group, in reading, writing and maths.

That put the education authority in seventh place across England – its highest result so far and five points above the national average.

Schools minister Nick Gibb said: “That is a testament to the hard work of the children and the professionalism of their teachers.”

Across Merseyside, only Liverpool slipped just below the 80% mark.

And no Merseyside areas were among the worst-performing schools, which were in other parts of the North West, Yorkshire, East Anglia and the south coast.

The figures also undermined the view that girls always do better than boys at that stage.

In Knowsley, Liverpool, Warrington and Wirral, boys did marginally better.

Nationally, one in three 11-year-olds failed to achieve the level expected of them in reading, writing and maths, according to the Department for Education (DfE) figures.

The statistics showed 67% of 11-year-olds in England achieved at least a Level 4 in these three subjects in their national curriculum tests.

That was up from 64% last year, a 3% rise – but still meant 33% of youngsters missed out.

The results meant nearly 183,000 pupils left school without a good grasp of reading, writing and maths this summer.