“Congratulations to pupils and teachers on this year’s key stage 2 Sats results. A great deal of work has gone into ensuring that children are well-prepared and supported for these assessments, and that they are ready to take the next step in their educational journey to secondary school. It is good to see the continued improvement in the proportion of children reaching expected standards since the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There is much debate about the pressure these tests can place on children. Teachers are adept at identifying and providing additional help where pupils are showing signs of anxiety. However, these are demanding one-size-fits-all tests, and it would be better to move to a system of personalised assessments using the type of adaptive testing technology which is readily available.
“This would allow questions to be tailored to the ability of the child and allow them to demonstrate what they know rather than feeling as though they are being judged on what they don’t know. We would like to see the government take steps to work with schools to plan and implement such a system.”