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Yoga classes and a healthy disregard for government initiatives saw a London primary school rise to the top of the league tables today.
Before taking their Sats this year, children at Riverside Primary in Rotherhithe were all offered a proper breakfast to give them a good start to the day.
Then the yoga teacher arrived to relax them with breathing exercises before they started the exams.
The approach paid off this year - with all 36 children passing their Sats tests in English, maths and science. The school was ranked top of the Evening Standard's league tables today, helping pupils soar more than a year ahead of their peers between the ages of seven and 11.
Jose Lewis, co-head of Riverside, said the school worked hard to avoid simply "teaching to the tests". Some children were stressed by Sats but a "strong support team" helped them cope.
Mrs Lewis said topping the league tables was a "nice early Christmas present" but cautioned that Sats were far from the ideal measure of a school or pupil's success.
The National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of Teachers are threatening to boycott next year's primary school Sats if ministers do not scrap the tests.
Mrs Lewis, a member of the NAHT, said she would support the industrial action if union members backed a boycott in a national ballot.
Teachers' assessments of their own pupils were "much more valuable" than tests, she said.
Ofsted rates Riverside as an "outstanding" school. The school serves an area of considerable social disadvantage.
