RESULTS released this week show that children from a Basingstoke school which might be closed down next year, partly because of poor performance, could be sent to one with even worse results.

Hampshire County Council’s education chief will decide this month whether to press on with plans to close Chineham Park Primary School on Shakespeare Road, Popley.

Several schools in the area have surplus places and the council has suggested children from Chineham Park – which has a falling number of pupils – would do better at these schools.

But it has emerged that one of the schools, South View Junior, has a worse SATS (Standard Assessment Tests) collective result score for 2009 than Chineham Park.

Chineham Park gained an aggregate score of 208, based on the number of children achieving level four in Key Stage 2 English, Maths and Science papers taken in May this year.

But South View gained an aggregate score of 203, with just 47 per cent of pupils gaining a level four in English compared to 62 per cent at Chineham Park.

Popley East Borough Councillor Andrew McCormick, a member of Chineham Park’s Interim Executive Board appointed after the school was put into special measures, said the figures raise serious questions.

He added: “Our SATS are really good and that casts serious doubt over the argument about the school not achieving, and the comments made by various parties about the school failing.

"It’s not a failing school but in terms of the closure consultation they are saying it doesn’t matter because they are looking at numbers on roll.”

Chineham Park pupils also achieved higher results in the SATS science papers than pupils at Merton Junior School and Oakridge Junior school, where pupils could also end up if their school closes.

Eighty five per cent of pupils at Chineham Park Primary gained a level four in Science while 76 per cent of Merton Junior pupils achieved the same level and Oakridge scored 83 per cent.

Ninety per cent of pupils at South View achieved level four and 85 per cent at Marnel Junior School.

Chineham Park gained a Contextual Value Added score of 100, which is average, while Oakridge, Marnel, South View and Merton were all below average with scores around 99.

The results showed that 73 per cent of pupils at Chineham Park Primary had made the expected progress in Maths compared to 68 per cent at Oakridge, 93 per cent at Merton, 72 per cent at South View and 80 per cent at Marnel.

Oakridge and Marnel both had lower aggregate scores across all three subjects this year compared to last year’s result, while Merton and South View showed an improvement.

Chineham Park’s results were not available for last year.

Councillor Paul Harvey, who represents the Norden ward from where children attend Chineham Park Primary, said the figures prove Chineham Park is improving.

He added: “It shows that Chineham Park has a continuing upward trend. The county council can’t use the argument that it’s a failing school because it isn’t. It hasn’t been for some time.”