Government defends Year 6 exams as 'meant to be hard'

The authorities has defended tests for Year 6 pupils crossed England, aft immoderate parents and teachers said a insubstantial successful this week's Sats was excessively difficult.

One caput teacher said the English speechmaking trial included immoderate "GCSE-level" questions. Some pupils were near successful tears and did not decorativeness the paper.

It has fuelled a statement among teachers and parents astir the intent of Sats.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson told BBC News the tests were "designed to beryllium challenging".

The authorities had antecedently said it worked to guarantee that "all tests are appropriate".

But asked for further remark connected the English speechmaking paper, the DfE added that Sats had to beryllium pugnacious "in bid to measurement attainment crossed the quality range, including stretching the astir capable children".

The authorities has advised that details of the contented of the trial insubstantial should not beryllium published until each Year 6 pupils person had the accidental to instrumentality it.

Sats are tests taken by pupils successful Year 2 and Year 6 to measure their reading, penning and maths skills - and to trial schools' performances.

Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, caput teacher astatine Anderton Park Primary School successful Birmingham, said it was "heartbreaking" to spot her pupils struggling to get done the speechmaking paper.

Mrs Hewitt-Clarkson, who has 2 teenage daughters who person taken their GCSEs successful the past fewer years, said: "I'm not a secondary English teacher, but... immoderate of those questions were decidedly of that level. It's conscionable unfair."

Mrs Hewitt-Clarkson hopes the Standards and Testing Agency - which is portion of the DfE - mightiness see lowering the walk people this year, successful effect to however hard immoderate students recovered it.

"For children to neglect - oregon not execute the standardised people - wherever we cognize successful people they person been performing astatine an age-related expected level, oregon above, it conscionable shows each the flaws of a strategy that depends astir wholly connected 1 test," she said.

The authorities says it converts children's earthy trial scores into "scaled scores" truthful that tests tin beryllium compared, adjacent if the trouble varies.

Heather, from Ipswich, said her lad recovered this week's Sats process "absolutely fine".

"Our schoolhouse puts precise small unit connected our children for the Sats," she told BBC Radio 5 Live. "It's been rather a affirmative experience."

But Davina Bhanabhai, a writer from Leeds, said her girl was "really flustered" by the English speechmaking insubstantial connected Wednesday.

"Children came retired feeling distraught, anxious and stressed. These 3 emotions are not what we privation to bring our children up to experience," she told BBC News.

"The teachers are stressed due to the fact that that's the lone measurement they person that they tin amusement that they're doing their job," she added. "[The children] privation to bash well, truthful people that accent is going to beryllium passed down [to them]."

Two acquisition unions, the National Education Union (NEU) and NAHT, have raised concerns astir the paper.

NEU associated wide secretary, Mary Bousted, added determination were "better ways of assessing pupils" than done Sats.

Standard Assessment Tests, oregon Sats, are tests that children instrumentality successful Year 6, astatine the extremity of Key Stage 2. They are nationalist program assessments successful English grammar, punctuation and spelling, English speechmaking and maths.

The government's Standards and Testing Agency says the purposes of Sats tests are to:

Children besides beryllium Sats successful Year 2, astatine the extremity of Key Stage 1.

The nationalist program tests were cancelled successful 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic.