Teachers warn Sats results do not reflect ability

As the year's Sats results are published today, teachers are warning that the exams have lost their value and do not accurately represent pupils' abilities.

In a survey of secondary school teachers in 107 schools conducted by Civitas, nine out of ten labelled Key Stage 2 Sats results as unreliable, citing 'coaching' as the main problem.

With schools under pressure to perform well in league tables, 77 per cent of the teachers interviewed said results are often higher than pupils' actual abilities because schools intensively coach children for the tests.

Anastasia de Waal, author of the report, commented: "Teaching to the test has become such a widespread phenomenon because of government pressure to boost test and exam results at whatever cost … the result is that the mechanism for testing teacher and school effectiveness has come to actually undermine educational effectiveness."

Headteachers have also criticised the government for deciding to publish the Sats results now, despite question marks over the accuracy of this year's marking.