More than three times as many Sats results are currently being suppressed due to ongoing maladministration investigations than at the same time last year, Tes can reveal.

Department for Education figures released today show that in the 2018 provisional data 2,688 test results were suppressed - at the same time last year, this figure was 723.

There have also been 343 results annulled due to confirmed maladministration in 2018, slightly less than this time last year when 382 results had been annulled.

Last month, it was revealed that one of schools involved was Harris Primary Academy Philip Lane in Tottenham, North London, where pupils did not receive their maths or reading results after the Standards and Testing Agency, which runs Sats, concluded that they had been “over-aided” during the tests.

Maladministration in Sats

Maladministration refers to any action that jeopardises the integrity of the exams, and can range from test papers being incorrectly opened to pupils cheating, the over-aiding of pupils by test administrators or changes being made to the pupils’ test papers.

The information published today reveals that in the final 2017 data there were 2,292 results annulled due to confirmed maladministration, compared with 651 in 2016.

A final report on maladministration in 2016, published last year, revealed that 65 schools had at least one pupil’s key stage 2 results quashed in at least one subject.

The provisional results published today update the headline results published in July, and they show that 64 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths this year and that the percentage of children reaching the expected standard in the 3Rs ranged from 52 per cent in the lowest performing local authority to 80 per cent in the highest-performing authority.

Revised results are due to be published in December.