Kingston pupils beat the national average once again in this year’s much maligned Sats examinations, amid controversy over the accuracy of the results.

The percentage of children in the borough achieving the Government’s level four target was between two and four points higher across English, maths and science than the England average, despite data being published with only 97.1 per cent of schools receiving their full results.

Councillor Patricia Bamford, Kingston Council’s lead member for education, described this year’s marking process as a “fiasco”, but added she was proud of the hard work put in by pupils and staff in the borough.

She said: “I’m delighted with the results we know about so far, but of course I’m concerned about all the fuss over marking and inaccuracies, which obviously had children and young people on edge.

“I can’t say I’m 100 per cent confident about the results because from what I’ve heard over the last couple of weeks some papers have been coming back only three quarters marked.

“I can have confidence in the teachers and pupils, however, and I want to say well done to all the pupils and staff who have worked so hard.

“We know Kingston is a high-flying authority and you would expect that to continue, but it’s much more difficult to improve on being good than it is to just stay good.”

A record number of remarking requests are expected for this year’s tests, after teachers questioned the quality of marking, although exams regulator Ofqual said it was convinced the results were of a suitable quality to publish.