The 2016 SATs might be behind us, but headteachers are still angry about what the majority see as having been a testing fiasco. With a new school year beginning, heads reflect and speculate about what should happen in 2017

SATs season seemed to lurch from one headline disaster to another. Headteachers and their schools had been warned for some time that there would be a hike in standards but they were still taken by surprise at just how difficult their pupils would find the tests.

“What misguided soul thinks that by putting year 7 (and year 8) objectives into year 6, that standards will rise?” asks Paul Wyllie, headteacher at Radford Semele Primary School in Leamington Spa.

“The results have been an insult to both pupils and staff who have grafted all year,” added Diane Compton, headteacher at Michael Drayton Junior School in Nuneaton. “They have proved nothing to us other than the system is working against us and not with us.”

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