Sats this year ‘useless’ and should be cancelled, say primary headteachers

Headteachers have said that Sats tests will be “useless” in 2022 and should be cancelled.

In a survey of more than 2,000 school leaders carried out by the NAHT heads’ union, 8% said they thought the tests would provide meaningful information about their school’s performance, while 10% said the data would be a reliable indicator of pupils’ attainment or progress.

Some 1% said they thoughts Sats in Key Stage One should go ahead as planned, with 3% saying they should go ahead for Key Stage Two pupils.

Heads’ responses also suggested they were concerned about how the data could be used for accountability purposes, with 11% of survey respondents trusting that Ofsted would not draw conclusions based on Sats data alone, or that they would not draw comparisons with performance data from previous years.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said: “Primary schools have experienced severe disruption due to Covid this year, just as much as in 2020 and 2021. And that disruption has not been felt evenly – some schools have been harder hit by staff and pupil absences than others, meaning children have had very different experiences of teaching and learning.”

He said that this meant the results of Sats in 2022 “really can’t be compared, either with previous years or with other schools”.

“There is a real danger that the data from these tests could paint a very misleading picture of an individual school’s performance and lead to incorrect conclusions being drawn.”

Mr Whiteman said that teachers did not need the tests to inform them about a pupil’s progress, as this was something they already assessed constantly, adding that staff were “more aware than ever of what each child needs to help them recover any lost learning from the pandemic”.

He said that Sats were not something teachers found valuable for assessment and could simply prove a distraction during a time when schools were facing a lot of disruption.

“The week schools will need to spend putting children through these tests could be far better spent focusing on teaching and learning. That is particularly true this year given the time pupils have already missed from school due to Covid,” he said.

“Sats are really used to assess schools more than pupils, but the data from this year’s tests will be largely useless when it comes to judging a school’s performance,” he said.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are holding all primary assessments in the 2021/22 academic year. These are vital to building our knowledge of the impact of the pandemic on pupils, so that we can give support to the schools and pupils that need it the most.

“We have already announced that the results of this year’s primary assessments will not be published in key stage 2 performance tables in this academic year. We will ensure clear messages are placed alongside any data from 2021/22 on how to appropriately use and interpret it given the uneven impact of the pandemic.”