TEACHERS in Swindon have welcomed the scrapping of SATs in secondary schools, but want them lifted for seven and 11-year-old pupils as well.

Education secretary Ed Balls has said 14 year olds will undergo improved teacher assessment instead of SATs, but insisted the tests will stay in primary schools.

“You will be hard-pushed to find a head who isn’t pleased that SATs are going,” said Greendown Community School headteacher Clive Zimmerman.

“The recent SATs became a farce with results coming back wrong. If they can’t produce a decent test there is no point in doing the SATs in the first place.”

Peter Wells, chairman of the Swindon Association of Secondary Headteachers (SASH) said: “SATs have become a feature of life in schools and the fact that the Government have at long last recognised their limitations is all to the good.

“Key Stage 3 SATs in particular are of limited value because they are a benchmark without a focus, let alone considering the chaos over the summer when the costly administration broke down and the quality of judgements was undermined.”

The Government is introducing report cards for schools rating them with grades from A to F.

NASUWT branch secretary Dick Mattick said: “It is good to see that Mr Balls has belatedly come around to the thinking of a lot of teachers.

“Given the confusion over results last year, I think it would be a good idea to get rid of SATs altogether. The report card idea seems a bit simplistic as reports currently done by schools are a much better indication of performance and potential.”

Lethbridge Primary headteacher Ray Norman called on Mr Balls to become an education secretary of stature and put the needs of pupils and schools before “government posturing” with a total ban on SATs.

He said: “Parents, pupils and schools still face this huge beauracratic exercise which measures the ability of children during one week in May and ignores continued assessment taking place every day by teachers.

“We fully support the need for assessment but it needs to be done by schools rather than externally, which shows a complete lack of trust.” He also questioned why Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland don’t have them.

Haydonleigh Primary headteacher Frances Billinge agreed. “SATs put huge pressure on teachers and children,” she said. “As professionals we should be trusted to give an evaluation of pupils’ progress.”