Suffolk is one of just 13 local authorities in England where more than one in eight primary schools are failing to hit the basic targets in reading, writing and maths.

New league tables, released today by the Government, show 15% of Suffolk primaries are falling short of the “floor standard”.

The new rankings reveal the performance of primaries in national curriculum tests - known as Sats - in reading and maths, as well as teacher assessments of pupils’ writing skills.

Under the Government’s tougher standards, schools must ensure that at least 65% of 11-year-olds reach Level 4 - the standard expected of the age group - in reading, writing and maths, and meet national averages in pupil progress.

There were 13 local authorities where more than one in eight primaries are below the floor.

They are Suffolk, Poole, Rutland, Reading, Walsall, Barnsley, the Isle of Wight, Derby, Bournemouth, Bradford, Bristol, Peterborough and Southampton.

It comes just a day after Ofsted said thousands of students in Suffolk were still attending schools classed as requiring improvement or inadequate, despite some progress in increasing standards in the past year.

Today’s statistics show that, nationally, the proportion of primaries failing to give their pupils a good grounding in the three Rs has remained static this year, despite schools facing tougher government targets.

In total, more than 700 schools in England are now considered below the floor standard, the same proportion as last year, according to a Government analysis of data used to create primary school league tables.

Ministers insisted that the findings showed that schools have “raised their game”.

Schools that fail to meet the benchmark - which is based on national curriculum test results at age 11 and pupil progress - are considered under-performing and at risk of being turned into an academy, or taken over by a different sponsor or trust if they already have academy status.

The analysis shows that there are 22 local authorities where there are no primary schools below the government’s floor target.

These are: Blackpool, Camden, City of London, Greenwich, Haringey, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Isles of Scilly, Kingston upon Thames, Lewisham, Newham, North Tyneside, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southend-on-Sea, St Helens, Sutton, Torbay, Tower Hamlets, Westminster and Wokingham.

But at the other end of the scale, there were 13 local authorities - including Suffolk - where more than one in eight primaries are below the floor.