Schools minister to look into concerns Year 6 SATs exams were too difficult
Schools minister Nick Gibb said SATs for 10 and 11-year olds should not be too hard following complaints some pupils were left in tears over last week's exams.
Tuesday 16 May 2023 21:52, UK
The schools minister has said he will look into concerns that last week's SATs exams were too difficult after claims that a paper left some Year 6 pupils in "tears".
Nick Gibb said he does not want the tests, which are taken by 10 and 11-year-olds in England, to be "too hard" as that is "not the purpose" of the assessment.
It comes after a flood of complaints from parents and teachers about last week's reading exam, with a union saying even staff struggled "to understand the questions" due to how they were phrased.
The SATs exams also included cultural references children from urban areas would find it difficult to relate to.
Meanwhile, teachers have said the tests used too many idiomatic expressions that would not be understood by people who hadn't encountered them before.
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When asked about concerns over the difficulty of tests, Mr Gibb said he had not seen the English paper yet but would look at it when it becomes available next week.
He added: "The Standards and Testing Agency have tested this test before in tests before the pandemic, they tested it last year with a large group of children, they monitored the response of those children to the test, to the questions, they found that 85% enjoy taking the test.
"But we will look at this. I will certainly look at this because I know that there has been concern expressed by some schools."
It is understood Mr Gibb will look specifically at the reading paper that had caused complaints when it becomes available on Monday.
Analysis by the TES education magazine found children were given 34 seconds to answer each of the 38 questions due to the length of the texts in the reading and answer booklets.
It said pupils were required to read 2,106 words across three texts in the reading booklet - around a third more than last year's 1,564 words.
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 National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has expressed concerns over the reading paper and said it plans to raise the issue with exams regulator Ofqual and the Standards and Testing Agency.
Sarah Hannafin, the union's head of policy, said 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".
'Tears flowed'
Kerry Forrester, a headteacher at a Cheshire primary school, said the reading paper was the most difficult she had ever seen in her 29 years and "tears flowed from our most capable pupils" after opening it.
She said this year's SATS has seen "the most negative impact on our children that we have ever experienced" and called for the exams to be scrapped.
Parents also expressed concern about the difficulty.
Jayne Robinson, 39, who works as a nurse, said that many of her daughter's friends were unable to finish the exam even though her Stoke-on-Trent school had been helping pupils prepare for their SATS since Christmas.
"My daughter had a lot of SATs practice, but she said some of her friends couldn't finish the paper as it was too long, one of her friends made up answers at the end just to finish the paper."
Last Friday, the Department for Education defended the tests, saying they are "designed to be challenging" to measure attainment across the ability range.
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Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr Gibb said the exams do have to test "a range of ability" to show what proportion of children are exceeding the standard.
"But we don't want these tests to be too hard for children. That's not the purpose," he added.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), welcomed the minister's commitment to look at unions' concerns.
He added: "We've received a lot of feedback that this paper was unnecessarily difficult and that it left children distressed and teachers very anxious about the impact on their pupils.
"Key Stage 2 tests are not supposed to be some sort of gruelling rite of passage, but an accountability measure to check on attainment at the end of Key Stage 2."