When it comes to adding value to children's education, Wolverhampton has the best - and worst - school in the country.

The "added value" score measures the progress made by pupils between national literacy, numeracy and science tests taken at the age of seven and just before they leave primary education.

At one end of the scale was Manor Junior and Infant School in Bilston which came top in the country for turning around pupil performance.

At the other end was Bushbury Hill Primary School, which had the lowest rate of progress nationally.

The authority admitted the results had been "mixed" and blamed Bushbury's poor performance on a merger at the start of the year.

Wolverhampton's cabinet member for children and young people, Coun Christine Irvine, said: "It's a mixed picture overall, some of our schools in Wolverhampton have done exceptionally well and need to be congratulated.

"Other schools who have not done so well in the tables often have to work in challenging circumstances.

"An example particularly worth noting is Bushbury Hill Primary. The school is making rapid progress on its results but there has been insufficient period since the merger for the impact to be evident in the 2005 results."

She added: "Overall I am pleased with the improvement, particularly in English."

Bushbury Hill Primary came bottom out of Wolverhampton's 72 primary schools for actual results achieved by pupils in Key Stage Two tests.

Only 28 per cent of pupils achieved the required level in English and maths and 58 per cent in science.

Under the value-added measure, a score of 102.3 or above puts a school in the top five per cent nationally; 99.4 to

101.2 is "broadly average" and

98.2 or below is the bottom five per cent.

Bushbury Hill Primary achieved an value-added score of only 94.9.

The school's head Sue Cheyne said: "The new school has only been in existence since January 2005. The Key Stage Two statistics released for 2005 are effectively the results of the previous junior school.

"Since the merger a wide range of improvement strategies have been put in place.

"Firstly, the appointment of the headteacher of the previous infant school as the headteacher of the new primary school. Secondly, a new leadership and management team has been established.

"There have been significant improvements in the staffing of the new school which are already having an impact on the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom."

Ms Cheyne claimed " behaviour management" had improved through creating classrooms that were "more conducive to effective learning".

She said standards were already better and strategies had been established to secure the school's "long term, sustainable improvement".

She added: "It is anticipated that the results in 2006 will show a rise in levels of attainment."