Kent primary schools are keeping pace with the national average, official league tables published today show.

Pupils are assessed in reading, writing, and maths and expected to reach a Level 4 standard in all.

According to the Department for Education data, 79% of children in Kent schools achieved Level 4 - the government's benchmark of achievement.

That is in line with the national figure. When it comes to pupils achieving a "good" Level 4 score, Kent saw 68% of children doing so, compared to 67% nationally.

Around one in four - 25% - achieved a higher level of achievement by securing Level 5 - 1% more than the national average.

The SATs are designed to indicate whether children can spell properly, start to use grammatically complex sentences and employ joined up handwriting in English.

In maths they are able to multiply and divide whole numbers by 10 or 100 and use simple fractions and percentages.

Cllr Roger Gough (Con) KCC cabinet member for schools, said the improvement was a sign that primary schools were moving in the right direction.