Last updated at 10:52, Friday, 14 December 2012

Parents get the chance to see how well schools have performed in important exams today.

Alan Rutter

The results of the key stage two exams, popularly known as SATs, for each primary school have been published.

These are tests in English, maths and science which are sat by pupils in year six at the age of 11-years-old.

The students who sat them this year have now moved on to secondary school, and received their results as they left their primaries.

But today is the first time the collective results for each school have been published.

English and maths are both marked externally.

Teachers also give their pupils marks for reading.

Across the United Kingdom, 543,365 pupils sat these tests, with 79 per cent of them achieving the expected level four level of attainment.

This is up from 74 per cent last year and 73 in 2010.

The Department of Education has not released county breakdowns of these statistics.

Alan Rutter, Cumbria secretary of the National Union of Teachers advises parents not just to rely on statistics but to look deeper at their school’s results.

“Testing should have a purpose. All schools in Cumbria since I started teaching in 1974 test at 11-years-old.

“What has changed is the exam and the SATs just get more and more crude and have become an easy to create league table.”

Mr Rutter advises any parents concerned about results to check with the school about particular circumstances.

He says that in many schools, particularly those with small year groups, a minority of pupils can have a disproportionate effect on overall statistics.

John Stevenson, the MP for Carlisle, echoes this point but also defends the exams.

He says: “I think we have got to be careful with the exam results that we don’t just only look at what the tables are.

“I do think there is a benefit to them but, like everything, you have to take a balanced view.”

First published at 11:10, Thursday, 13 December 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk