Pearson’s SATs fiasco leaves staff in less than a holiday mood

Heads and teachers have been “left torn” between personal and work commitments as the Pearson SATs results fiasco will eat into their holidays.

The exams’ giant faces having its £130 million contract cancelled after delaying key stage 2 results by nine days, until July 16.

It follows weeks of glitches and errors with Pearson’s marking and data systems, as documented by Schools Week.

The government has pledged a review into “how such a serious failing” occurred and is exploring “all options for recourse”.

The debacle has prompted refreshed debate about the future of outsourcing the administration of major tests – as well as the future of the tests.

Delays will particularly impact heads in Leicestershire and Leicester, where schools finish for the summer this week, ahead of the rest of England.

Pat Mullins, headteacher at Woodstone Community Primary School in Coalville, said leaders were “left feeling torn” between their personal commitments and feeling like they should be there when the results come out.

“It is unreasonable to expect school leaders and staff to return to school during their annual leave to manage a problem that has arisen through no fault of their own.

“Processing SATs results is not a simple administrative task. Schools must download and scrutinise the data, identify any anomalies, prepare communications for parents, and ensure that results are distributed appropriately.”

Statutory duty

Schools have a statutory duty to include key stage 2 results in their end of year report, which must be sent to parents before the end of the summer term.

Mullins, the Leicestershire branch secretary for the leaders’ union NAHT, said the limits on teacher working hours created practical difficulties about who should undertake the work, when it should be completed, and whether staff could “reasonably be expected to carry out these duties during periods of leave”.

Leicestershire council ruled out setting a single date for schools to deliver results because leaders took annual leave at different points.

Headteachers would instead decide when to share results with families.

Nazma Jassat, the head of Charnwood Primary School in Leicester, said it was “disheartening” that pupils would not come into school to find out their marks.

“It robs us of the chance to offer much-needed support to some, and to celebrate the well-deserved success of others.”

Senior leaders would instead post or email results to parents.

Mullins said his school had prepared a letter to parents, ready for him and his deputy  to slot into each child’s results.

“For some pupils the delay means that they may not receive their results until August due to family holiday commitments.

“This is far from ideal and diminishes what should be an important moment of recognition for their efforts.”

Secondary schools impacted

Shockat Adam, an independent MP for Leicester South, warned the education secretary that term times meant pupils would receive results “without that pastoral structure around them”.

The government this week gave schools more time to submit reviews of marking or clerical errors, extending the deadline from July 24 to September 7.

The delay in results has also impacted secondary schools.

Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said SATs could give secondary schools a “useful, initial indication about areas where pupils might need greater support or where early intervention might be required”.

“It is very unhelpful that schools will now receive this data much later than they were expecting.”

A Pearson spokesperson said it remained focused on delivering results on 16 July.

Questions on outsourcing future

The delivery of SATs has been outsourced for decades.

It was previously run as several contracts – with separate deals for things such as posting and printing.

Pearson held the marking contract as a sub-contractor to the Standards and Testing Agency.

The government then created one overall contract, which Capita won in 2019.

Pearson then received £3 million from the STA to settle a legal dispute over outsourcing the management of assessments.

There were issues with Capita’s systems in its first year, which was in 2022 after SATs were cancelled during the pandemic.

When Pearson won the contract from Capita in 2024, it included an 18-month transitional period to help develop the systems.

In its annual report, published this week, exams regulator Ofqual said that during Pearson’s takeover of the contract, it “concentrated on obtaining assurance from STA regarding Pearson’s readiness to assume delivery responsibilities and the effectiveness of knowledge transfer from Capita during the transition period”.

Delays have happened before. In 2008, ETA Europe had its five-year contract cancelled after test results were held up for almost a month.

In 2016, then schools minister Nick Gibb launched a “root and branch” review of the STA’s operations, following following two “high-profile” security breaches that caused “significant publicity and reputational damage” to the agency.

In-house provision?

The future of the contract remains unclear, with one option being to revert to the previous contracting approach.

This year’s issues have prompted renewed calls from unions for the assessments to be brought into the public sector.

The government also recently published guidance in reducing outsourcing and aiming to “rebuild in-house capabilities”.

Mary Richardson, professor of educational assessment at UCL, said there were “pros and cons” to both outsourcing and in-house provision.

“But this is decades of privatising aspects of our education system by the back door. It’s not surprising to me that this is where we get to with it.”

If the DfE were to bring SATs entirely in-house, Richardson said it would need to invest in staffing to be able to carry out mass test administration.

‘Remiss’

Simon Kidwell, a former NAHT president and head of Hartford Manor Primary School in Cheshire, said: “We’re held to a very high standard of accountability around the administration of these tests, and it does feel remiss when the government is not able to deliver, whether that’s through outsourcing or in-house arrangements.”

Caroline Rodgers, the NAHT regional secretary in the east Midlands, also warned that policy-makers and delivery partners must recognise that schools could not absorb “every additional challenge without consequence”.

The delay has also prompted renewed debate on whether SATs should be scrapped.

A report this week by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that just 7 per cent of primary school leaders think SATs should stay in their current form.

Forty per cent said SATs should be removed and not replaced by any other assessment, while 12 per cent said they should be replaced.

And 93 per cent said the tests did not support disadvantaged children well.

The findings were based on a survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of IPPR, which was sent to 215 senior teachers at primary schools. IPPR also conducted in-depth interviews with 20 teachers and senior leaders at primary schools across England.