PRIMARY school pupils in Darlington have performed less well this year than last in English, mathematics and science, examination results show.

The town's education authority was singled out for praise last year by the then Education Secretary Estelle Morris, for three years of improved Key Stage Two exam results. But this year's results reveal a decrease in the number of pupils aged eight to 11, achieving the national standard (level four) in the three core subjects.

The rest of Darlington's results, for Key Stage One, Key Stage Three and GCSEs, show an overall improvement in pupils' performances.

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council said the results were unsurprising after three years of continued improvement.

He said: "This year that improvement has stalled, but we have every confidence that next year we can turn around this year's performance and improve further still.

"Clearly, when you are trying to improve over a high base anyway it gets increasingly more difficult."

This year, 86 per cent of pupils achieved level four in Key Stage Two science, compared with 90 per cent last year. For English the figures were 73 per cent compared with 76 per cent last year, and 76 per cent for mathematics compared with 77 per cent last year.