Stress of tests an 'overused mantra'

Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT, told CYP Now that stress on young people was often generated by over-anxious parents rather than the tests themselves.

Her comments follow the publication last Friday of the first interim report by the Primary Review - an independently enquiry into English primary education - that expressed "deep concern" about the stress on young children, teachers and families caused by national tests at ages seven and 11.

The Community Soundings report, based on a consultation with more than 750 people ranging from parents to head teachers to children, found the primary curriculum is "too rigidly prescribed" and "because of the pressure of SATS, too narrow". Respondents also felt pupils were under intense and perhaps excessive pressure from the policy-driven demands of their schools. But Keates said: "The claimed 'high anxiety' of the tests is the overused mantra of those who are opposed in principle to any form of testing."