A CARLISLE school has launched an internal investigation after allegations of exam paper tampering were reported earlier this year.

Cummersdale School on Cummersdale Road was placed under scrutiny by the Department for Education following an anonymous report to the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) regarding several Key Stage Two SATs examinations, sat by Year 6 pupils in May.

The news was made public after a letter was sent to parents by headteacher Gareth Jones in mid-July, days after the children were due to receive their results from the exam board, along with thousands more across the country on July 9.

Following the allegations, the Department for Education’s STA agency requested that an investigation be carried out by Cumbria County Council, but the authority found “no issues of concern”.

However, a further investigation was swiftly launched by the STA, and carried out during the summer.

A spokesman from the Department for Education told The Cumberland News that the 2019 Key Stage Two test results for the English grammar, punctuation and spelling: Paper 2 and Mathematics papers 1, 2 and 3 results at Cummersdale Primary were annulled for all pupils following their probe.

The spokesman added: “Teachers and parents must have confidence in the integrity of the assessment system, which is why we investigate every allegation of maladministration and have taken the decision to annul certain papers in this case.

“Any instances of maladministration of the national curriculum assessments are completely unacceptable and any concerns regarding maladministration of national curriculum assessments should be reported to the Standards and Testing Agency for investigation.”

In a response on behalf of Cummersdale School, Cumbria County Council said the decision to annul the SATs results was of “great concern”.

“The role of any investigation undertaken by the local authority on behalf of the STA is not to arrive at a specific judgement. Rather, the authority’s role is to collate evidence based on specific questions sent to us by the STA who themselves will make a judgement on a case-by-case basis, considering all the available evidence.

“We are aware of the STA decision to annul the KS2 SATs results at Cummersdale Primary School.

“This is clearly of great concern to us, as well as to parents, carers and young people.

“We are working with the school’s governing body to ensure that they fully investigate this situation.”

In wake of the findings, the county council went on to add that an internal investigation by the school into what happened in May was underway.

“The internal enquiries began last week, and are expected to take between four to six weeks,” the spokesman added.

The findings will be made by the school’s governing body shortly after.

Once published, the results are expected to reveal if the allegations of cheating were made against either the teachers, the pupils, or both, and will also state whether any disciplinary procedures will be made.

The county council revealed that, as all children have already made the transition to secondary school in the summer, no resits have been (or are due to be) taking place.

In a statement issued in July, Cummersdale School headteacher Gareth Jones said: “It goes without saying that we are taking this issue very seriously.

“Following an anonymous allegation the Standards and Testing Agency (STA) requested that the local authority conduct an investigation into the administration of our KS2 SATS. This is highly unusual and we hope matters will be resolved quickly.”