Author: Schools Week Reporter

The government has blamed a “rogue marker” for attempting to leak a key stage 2 SATs test after a copy of the exam paper was apparently sent to a journalist last night. Schools minister Nick Gibb is also looking to “seek redress” from the exam board after today’s spelling and grammar tests were erroneously uploaded onto […]

Today’s key stage 2 English test has been leaked online, adding to the chaos surrounding standardised testing in England after a similar key stage 1 test was accidentally published by the Department for Education (DfE) last month. The answers to the spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) test were uploaded onto a password-protected site accessible to exam markers last night, before […]

Twenty-seven per cent of children are “stressed” about their SATs, but only 10 per cent “hate” the tests, reveals a survey of year 6 pupils as standardised testing gets underway across England this week. According to a ComRes poll of 750 10- and 11-year-olds for the BBC, 14 per cent admitted they “enjoy” the tests and 48 per cent “don’t mind” taking them. Pupils […]

Sponsor-led primary academies improve substantially after conversion, but there is no evidence that converter academies get any better, reveals new analysis from a schools data website. Disadvantaged pupils at sponsor-led academies also improve more than their peers, show the SchoolDash findings, which are surprisingly similar to those for the secondary sector. With less than 13% of primary […]

Children all over England are being kept off school today, in protest at “a school system that places more importance on test results and league tables than children’s happiness and joy of learning”, according to organisers. In Brighton a rally attended by Children’s laureate Chris Riddell has attracted more than 500 parents and children, and local primary schools are reporting […]

Headteachers must decide whether they will record pupil absences related to parent protests over this summer’s SATs as authorised or not. A petition started by campaign group Let Our Kids Be Kids has around 30,000 signatories claiming they will stop their children attending school in protest over new national curriculum tests due to begin next month. The petition proposes “a day of […]

Schools and academy trusts have been encouraged to apply for funding to run trials into effective marking strategies, as the result of a major marking review published today by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). The report by University of Oxford academics concluded that despite teachers spending on average nine hours a week marking, there is little evidence to […]

An “inexpensive” trial policy improved all pupils’ literacy in the early years and had long-term effects on children who struggle with reading, a major new study has found. The “teaching to teach” literacy study, which sent phonics consultants to support primary school teachers and tracked 270,000 primary school children from reception to year 6, showed persistent […]