Year Six SATs: Government urged to think again following reports of children 'in tears'

Throughout this week ten and 11 year olds in Year Six from across Portsmouth and the surrounding area have been among those sitting the national curriculum tests, with the last maths test due to be taken on Friday (May 12). However a number of teachers and parents took to social media after the reading test and said that many children, despite being confident readers, were left upset and unable to finish the paper.

Teaching unions have also hit out and have called for the government to think again about SATs tests which returned last year for the first time after being ditched for two years as a result of the covid pandemic. The National Association of Head Teachers, which represents heads at the majority of primary schools, said it plans to raise the issue with the exams team at schools regulator Ofqual.

Sarah Hannafin, the union's head of policy, said: "We are very concerned about reports from our members about the Sats reading paper.

"Members have told us that the choice of texts was not accessible for the wide range of experiences and backgrounds children have and the difficulty was beyond previous tests, leaving children upset, and with even staff struggling to understand the questions.

"We will definitely raise these concerns with the Standards and Testing Agency and also the Ofqual National Assessments team."

Sats, or Standard Assessment Tests, are used to measure children's English and maths skills in Year 2 and Year 6, and consist of six 45-minute papers.

The Department for Education (DfE) website says Sats are meant to "measure school performance and to make sure individual pupils have the support that they need as they move into secondary school".

Kerry Forrester, a head teacher at a Cheshire primary school, has written to her local MP expressing concern about the "negative impact" of the exams on the "mental health and wellbeing" of her pupils.

In a letter she shared on Twitter, Ms Forrester says this year has seen "the most negative impact on our children that we have ever experienced".

"Tears flowed from our most capable readers and stress levels rose amongst all others," she said, adding that "this was the most challenging reading test I have seen in my 29 years as a teacher".

Beth Southern, an educational consultant and qualified primary school teacher, said her son was "disappointed" after this week's English paper turned out to be much more difficult than he had expected.

"My son feels disappointed that he found the reading test yesterday so challenging. He said the texts were long and wordy and that he had to use a lot of time trying to understand them, which didn't leave enough time for the questions," she said.

"He knows he was fortunate to finish when others have been left in tears.

"I have been told yesterday's test was dense, packed with difficult vocabulary, idiomatic language and a huge amount of inference was needed to complete it.

"It's awful that we assess a child's entire primary school reading ability on a single hour-long test that was way too complex for 10 to 11-year-olds to comprehend."

Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, added: “This week's Key Stage 2 SATs have been a punishing experience for many pupils and staff. In the words of one member, ‘as a teacher, it’s the most stressed I have ever felt.’ Children, even if they're confident readers, have struggled to complete papers.

“The problems of SATs are not confined to a single week. For months, sport, the arts, the humanities and the sciences have been squeezed from timetables for English, Maths and practice papers. Soon, SATs results will tell hundreds of thousands of pupils that they have not met the expected standard and they will take this demotivating label with them into their secondary schools.

“This is not a system that is concerned about children and their learning. There are better ways of assessing pupils. There are better forms of school accountability. It is about time the government started looking at them.’

A DfE spokesperson said: "Key Stage 2 assessments play a vital role in understanding pupils' progress and identifying those who may have fallen behind, so they can be provided with extra support if needed.

"Our test development process is extremely rigorous and includes reviews by a large number of education and inclusion experts and professionals including teachers, and we trial tests with hundreds of pupils over several years to ensure that all tests are appropriate.

"It's important that schools encourage pupils to do their best but preparing for these exams should not be at the expense of their wellbeing."

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