Commenting as SATs take place this week, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“There is a real sense of nervousness around the delivery of SATs this year, after the repeated failings seen from the government’s delivery partner last year. Schools and pupils cannot have a repeat of the chaos.

“Last year saw lost, mishandled and wrongly graded papers, with the government only confessing to the full scale of the problems after months of pushing. Although a report has recently been published looking into the failings, which contained sensible learnings, it was published very late in the day, which did little to reassure parents and school staff that things are under control this year.

“It remains to be seen whether the government and their SATs delivery partner have learned the lessons necessary from last year. School leaders will certainly be hoping so but it’s an unnecessary additional worry at an already stressful time.”