BURY schools are still among the top performing in the country, despite being among the poorest-funded.

Every pupil at both Greenmount Primary and Lowercroft Primary schools reached level four in all three key subjects last year.

Their stunning results helped the authority rank as the top performer in Greater Manchester and 15th in the country, despite a slight fall on last year's Key Stage Two test scores.

Yet chief education officer Harold Williams says that the authority's success comes in spite of receiving some of the poorest funding.

Every pupil in Bury is funded to the tune of around £2,000, but in other parts of the country, he says, the figure could be double that.

Mr Williams accepts that there should be some differential to take in local circumstances, but says the current system is unfair - resulting in fewer classroom assistants and other resources for children in the authority's 66 primary schools.

Reservations

''We do have reservations about league tables,'' he said, ''but I think this does give us a certain sense of satisfaction that Bury primary schools have managed a performance that's in the top quartile of the 150 LEAs, while the funding they receive rests very firmly in the bottom quartile.

''A school in Bury gets around £2,000 per pupil, but in some areas of the country, it can be as high as £4,000. With better resources, we might be able to do still more, because that would help us to improve further. We would be able to look at staffing levels within our schools.

''We are obviously delighted with the performance of our schools and would congratulate schools that have continued to make progress across the three subjects that are tested.''

Peter Parker, headteacher at top-performing Greenmount Primary, said he was thrilled with the exam performance of youngsters, who he says are cherished by staff at the school.

Jean Boardman, headteacher at high-achieving Lowercroft, put the school's 100 per cent performance down to the hard work of staff and pupils.

''The children love school and I think that's because of the atmosphere,'' she said. ''They are well supported by their parents and last year, the children made fantastic progress.''

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