A PRIMARY school which was forced to close would have been at the top of this year's Bolton school league tables if the Government had published its results.

Former staff of the Fourgates school - which merged with Wingates St John Primary School in October to become the Gates School - are now demanding that the outstanding achievements of their pupils are acknowledged.

Eleven-year-old pupils at the Fourgates School achieved 100 per cent in English, Maths and Science in the Key Stage 2 tests, results which would have taken them to the top of Bolton's primary school league tables.

But there is no mention of Fourgates in the Government's national league table of primary school test results because it closed between the time the tests were taken and when the results were published.

David Clegg who was the headteacher at Fourgates and is now the Gates headteacher said: "I know the school no longer exists, but it did exist at the time the tests were taken."

He added that parents, staff and governors were upset that the pupils who achieved the outstanding results had not received public recognition for their hard work.

Jayne Horrocks, another former Fourgates staff member, now a nursery nurse at the Gates school in Manchester Road, said: "Staff worked so hard. Those results should have been published."

A spokesman for the Department of Education and Skills said it was Government policy that results of closed schools were not published.

He said the league tables were intended to give parents information to help them choose which school to send their child to.