RECORD results in this year's primary school league tables were overshadowed today by an attack on key Government policies.

The head of the school which topped this year's hardest league table attributed her success to 'ignoring' large parts of the Government's school strategies.

All the 11-year-olds at Combe C of E Primary School in Witney, Oxfordshire, were three years ahead of their age group in English, maths and science tests.

It was the second time the school had topped the elite league table, which measures how many 11-year-old pupils reach the level expected of 14-year-olds.

But head Barbara Jones said her school did not follow the daily literacy hour or national numeracy programmes rigidly.

She said: "We don't rush things. The problem is when you take four days, just because the literacy strategy or some other directive says you should."

The criticisms came after Education Secretary Ruth Kelly announced changes to the way the national literacy strategy teaches children to read.

She heralded a return to a method of teaching reading known as phonics, in which children learn to blend letter sounds to form words.