SCHOOL examination papers mistakenly delivered to Swindon have been returned to their rightful owners - 170 miles away.

St Andrews CE Primary School, in Blunsdon, received its standard assessment tests (SATs) Key Stage Two marked examination papers from a distribution company.

But the delivered bundle also contained four or five extra papers belonging to pupils from a school in Bolton with the same name.

The mistake was part of a blunder by ETS, the company handling the examination marking process nationally.

"The schools are a few hundred miles apart," said Councillor Garry Perkins, cabinet member for children's services "I know they both begin with B but, hopefully, the examination company would know the difference between Swindon and Bolton."

Blunsdon headteacher Jane Wheatley said she had been surprised when she realised the error, as it had never happened before.

She said: "We received all our English, science and maths papers and in the box there was an additional small package."

Once she realised the school's identification code did not match the documents she phoned the Bolton school, spoke to the headteacher and sent on the packages by recorded delivery.

"I was surprised - I think it was probably more difficult for her because she had lost the papers rather than us who had additional ones.

"It worked well for me, but clearly not for the school in Bolton."

Blunsdon was not the only school caught up in this clerical error as some other papers from the Bolton school were sent to another school of the same name in Staffordshire, while yet more are still missing.

Ms Wheatley added: "I don't want to criticise - we all make mistakes, don't we?"

The issue was discussed at Bolton Council's meeting on Wednesday evening where politicians described the situation as unacceptable'.

It is the first year of a new marking system. Previously, exam papers were sent direct to the marker and back.

Now they are sent in bulk to ETS, which distributes them to markers and then sends them back to schools.

Coun Perkins had not heard of this happening before in Swindon, but said it was a case of incompetence among national authorities.

"There aren't the checks in place obviously to ensure that when something is mailed, whether it's exam results or Government documents, that the delivery address is correct," he said.

A spokesman for Ofqual, the regulator for testing and examinations, said: "The inquiry will consider all evidence concerning this year's examinations.

"The school should email what has happened to sutherlandinquiry @ofqual.gov.uk for it to be considered in the review."