Primary school exam results released today have divided opinion among Dorset headteachers.

They spoke out as figures show that schools recorded some of their best-ever results in league tables published today.

To see how schools compare across Dorset click here and put your area in the location box. Then scroll down the page and click Primary Schools and compare results.

The number of 11-year-olds reaching the government’s required standard has risen in Dorset, according to the tables published by the Department of Education.

Chickerell Primary School in Weymouth was propelled into the top 200 primary schools in England, ranked by the percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 in both English and maths.

It recorded a 100 per cent success rate in English and 98 per cent in maths.

Some are in favour of the national Scholastic Assess-ment Tests (SATs) taken by 10 and 11-year-olds in English and maths, while others say the figures released don’t provide a full picture of a school’s achievements.

Celebrating a major improvement was headteacher Jody Harris, who has been at the school for two years.

She said: “The school had been satisfactory for 14 years, it was ticking over.

“One of the first things I did when I got here was go watch every teacher teach.”

Miss Harris said SATS make the school accountable to the community.

“They provide a snapshot of where the child is and I can say to the local community ‘this is how the children are doing’,” she said.

Thorner’s C of E school in Litton Cheney, near Bridport, scored 100 per cent in each criteria, which scores how much progress pupils have made and how many pupils have reached the national average Level 4.

With just seven pupils taking the exams, the school was eighth in the table.

Headteacher Jyotsna Chaffey said: “We are a very small school so it just depends very often on the particular cohort.

Portesham C of E Primary School was another rural school that performed well. With 12 pupils taking the exam, it finished in fifth position in the league.

Headteacher Vicky Prior said: “We’re delighted with that result, for all the pupils it’s a very fair reflection of their achievements.

“Historically, we get high results and we have just had another ‘outstanding’ in our recent Ofsted inspection.

“We are an outstanding school and the achievements reflect that.”

Les Strong, headteacher of Bincombe Valley School in Weymouth, said the school’s 71st ranking, a drop of six places from last year, doesn’t reflect its achievements.

He added: “The problem is that there’s too many coasting schools.

“If you have children entering your school below national expectations then it’s an achievement to bring them above national expectations.

“Our attainment as a school was higher for 2012 than 2011. We’re one of only a few schools in this area that got a Level Six for maths.”

Andrew Roberts-Wray, headteacher of independent Sunninghill Prepatory School in Dorchester, made the decision to enter his students for SATs.

He said: “We do them because we use them as a benchmarking tool and it’s more about each child making individual progress.

“We don’t do them because we want to teach to a test. Other subjects don’t get as much attention which is detrimental to children’s education.

“It does perpetuate a system where teachers’ pay is performance-related.”