Commenting on a new report released today by education think tank EDSK, which finds that the current set of primary school tests is not producing fair and accurate judgements on either pupils or schools, Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“The way in which government currently holds primary schools to account through national pupil testing undoubtedly does more harm than good. Today’s report from EDSK shines a light on the problematic nature of the current system, and correctly highlights a number of issues with the way primary statutory assessment currently works. NAHT have long argued for fewer statutory tests throughout the primary years, which have for too long narrowed the curriculum and distracted focus from great teaching and learning.

“In finding a better approach to primary assessment, EDSK are right that we need to think creatively and learn lessons from other education systems around the world. Yet we know that any approach that uses pupil test results to hold schools to account has potential to have unintended impact and introduce perverse incentives.

"It is clear that there are no simple solutions and no perfect answers to this problem, but it’s one that we must continue to wrestle with. As part of this we must be careful not to create a new set of problems in our attempts to solve existing ones. We hope that EDSK’s report will provoke much needed debate and scrutiny on this important theme."