The Government has defended tests for sixth graders across England after some parents and teachers said working in this week’s sats was too difficult.
A headteacher said the English reading test included some “GCSE level” questions. Some students burst into tears and didn’t finish the work.
It has sparked debate among teachers and parents about the purpose of sats.
A spokesman for the Department of Education (DfE) told BBC News the tests were “designed to be challenging”.
The government had previously said it was working to ensure “all testing is adequate”.
However, the DfE solicited further comments on the English-language reading paper, adding that Sats would need to be tough “to measure performance across the range of skills, including nurturing the highest-achieving children”.
The government has warned that details of the content of the exam paper should not be released until all Year 6 students have had a chance to take it.
Sats are tests taken by 2nd and 6th graders to assess their reading, writing and math skills – and to assess school performance.
- Children are “disturbed” after reading the newspaper on Saturday
- Leader plans to scrap sats after students are ‘broken’
- Year 6 sats results slide post-Covid
Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, head teacher at Anderton Park Primary School in Birmingham, said it was “heartbreaking” to see her pupils struggling to get through reading the newspaper.
Ms Hewitt-Clarkson, who has two teenage daughters who have been doing their GCSE in recent years, said: “I’m not a secondary English teacher but… some of those questions were definitely at that level. It’s just unfair.” .”
Ms Hewitt-Clarkson hopes the Standards and Testing Agency – which is part of the DfE – might consider lowering the pass mark this year in response to how difficult it has been for some students.
“When children fail — or fail to achieve the standardized score — when we know they performed in class at or above their age-related expected level, that only demonstrates all the shortcomings of a system that relies almost entirely on a test.” She said.
The government says it converts children’s raw test scores into “scaled scores” so tests can be compared, even if the level of difficulty varies.
Heather, from Ipswich, said her son found the Sats trial “absolutely fine” this week.
“Our school doesn’t put much pressure on our children at the sats,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live. “It was quite a positive experience.”
But Davina Bhanabhai, a writer from Leeds, said her daughter was “really nervous” about reading the English newspaper on Wednesday.
“The children were born disturbed, anxious and stressed. Those three emotions are not what we want to instill in our children,” she told BBC News.
“Teachers are stressed because that’s the only yardstick they can use to show they’re doing their job,” she added. “[The children] I want to do well, so naturally the stress is passed on [to them].”
Two education unions, the National Education Union (NEU) and NAHT, have raised concerns about the paper.
The joint general secretary of the NEU, Mary Bousted, added that there were “better ways of assessing students” than through sats.
Standard Assessment Tests or Sats are tests that children take in Year 6 at the end of Key Level 2. These are national curriculum assessments in English grammar, punctuation and spelling, English reading and mathematics.
According to the state standards and testing agency, Sats tests are intended to:
- help measure student progress
- determine whether they need additional help in certain areas
- evaluate school performance
- create national performance data.
Children also complete sophomore sats, at the end of Key Stage 1.
Last year, 59% of sixth grade students achieved expected levels in reading, writing and math – down from 65% in 2019.
National curriculum tests were canceled in 2020 and 2021 amid the pandemic.
Add Comment