The schools minister, Nick Gibb, has rejected accusations that the government’s school accountability measures place undue stress on children, as the results for this year’s national tests showed improved performances in English and maths.
Teaching unions in England have argued that the pressure resulting from standard assessment tasks (Sats) has seen children reduced to tears or suffering panic attacks among 10- and 11-year-olds in their final year of primary school.
Gibb said he was delighted by the interim results, which showed a greater proportion of children reaching the government’s performance standards at the end of key stage 2 than in previous years.
“I think schools have adapted extremely well to what is a more demanding curriculum that we introduced in 2014. But we want to go further. We want every young person leaving primary school to be fluent in reading and fluent in arithmetic,” the minister said.
Across England, 64% of pupils were found to have reached the national standard in literacy and maths, compared with 61% last year and 53% in 2016 when the more demanding assessments came in. In reading, 75% reached the expected standard, a four percentage point jump compared with 2017. In maths the rise was one percentage point to 76%.
The results are used by the government to judge the performance of primary schools in England, with a minimum of 65% of pupils needing to meet the standards in reading, writing and maths for a school to avoid falling below the government’s floor target.
Gibb said schools should take responsibility to avoid making the tests a stressful experience for their pupils, despite the high stakes involved.
“We trust schools not to put undue pressure on young people. These are not tests that lead to qualifications for the children themselves,” he said.
“Sats were introduced in 1990 to hold schools to account. That’s the purpose of them. It’s that holding schools to account that helps drive up standards across the board.
“Parents expect schools to test children. But we do not expect schools to put pressure on young people when they are taking Sats. The heads I meet, who are running very good primary schools, say: ‘We would not dream of putting pressure on our young people’. Sometimes pupils don’t even realise they are taking tests.
“It’s effective teaching over the period of primary which will deliver the results. Putting undue pressure on pupils will not deliver the kind of results that our accountability system is demanding.”
Julie McCulloch, the director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said schools should be congratulated on their results but she remained concerned over reports of children crying and having nightmares about the tests.
“Schools do their best to protect their pupils from stress and anxiety, but action is clearly needed to reduce the pressure of the current system.
“The problem is not the tests themselves but the fact that they are used as the main way of judging primary schools and the stakes are extremely high,” McCulloch said.
ASCL and other teaching unions have lobbied the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted to give less weight to the assessments when judging schools.
The National Association of Head Teachers said any direct comparisons with previous years’ tests was not possible because of significant changes to the assessment of writing this year, after protests that the previous system was unfair.
“No single piece of data should ever be used to make a judgment about a school or a child. We recommend that performance data should be looked at over a three year period and we have assurances from the secretary of state that data will be used more fairly,” said Paul Whiteman, the NAHT’s general secretary.
Gibb said that Damian Hinds, the education secretary, had made it clear he wanted an accountability system that was “proportionate”.
“We don’t want an accountability system that’s akin to being a football manager but we do expect high standards in our schools,” Gibb said.
The DfE has said it will scrap national assessments at key stage one – for six- and seven-year-olds – in exchange for a new assessment when children enter full-time schooling in reception classes.
