Councillors sitting on Northumberland County Council's school monitoring and improvements committee heard that the county continues to exceed the national average at Foundation Stage.

Mr Tony Mays, head of school improvement, told the committee that at foundation stage the authority outperformed the national average in all measures.

County-wide performance at KS1 also rose slightly in reading and writing and dropped slightly in maths.

At GCSE, Northumberland received its best ever results this year with the number of students gaining five or more A* to C grades up by ten per cent.

However, Mr Mays said that performance at KS2 had fallen.

"KS1 and KS2 are the lowest performing," Mr Mays said. "The Department for Children, Families and Schools has recognised the issues we face and have given us additional funding to target schools that have fallen below the floor target with intensive support."

A quarter of a million pounds was made available to the county to help schools which had fallen below the "floor target" standards set out by Government.

"It's had a positive impact," Mr Mays said.

However, Mr Mays said that reliable data was not yet available for KS3 students.

Councillors on the committee were sceptical of the value of exams at 14 and said problems with KS3 moderation wouldn't have a significant impact.

Coun Ian Lindley said: "Schools will be aware of pupils' abilities and kids will be getting appropriate guidance. I'm not too bothered about the national issue."