Year 6 Sats do not seem to affect children’s wellbeing and happiness, according to a new study based on data from 2012.

But critics say that further research drawing on the current testing regime is needed, given the University College London (UCL) research is based on data from nearly a decade ago, before the curriculum was “radically changed”.

The study found that pupils who took Sats did not report any significant change in how they felt about themselves, their school or their family life in the weeks preceding and following the tests.

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The findings have been released after campaigners and pupils handed in a petition to Downing Street calling for new assessments of four- and five-year-olds in their first few weeks of school to be scrapped.

A 2018 survey by the NEU teaching union found that children were having nightmares about Sats, while others were so anxious they were sick.

The poll also found that nine in 10 primary teachers felt the tests were detrimental to pupil wellbeing.

But today’s study suggests that there does not appear to be strong enough evidence to support scrapping Sats “on wellbeing grounds”.

‘Not enough evidence’ to scrap Sats on wellbeing grounds

The research analysed data from around 2,500 children who live in England (where the key stage 2 tests take place) and 600 pupils in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (where the tests do not take place).

Children were asked a series of questions on how they felt about themselves and their lives in the lead-up to the tests and the weeks following.

Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of pupils in England said they felt unhappy about their schoolwork prior to the tests, compared with 28 per cent in the rest of the UK.

This figure did not significantly increase or decrease in the weeks prior to and after testing.

The research, which uses Millennium Cohort Study data from 2012, suggests that the Year 6 tests are not necessarily “high-stakes” indicators for children.

Study author John Jerrim, from the UCL Social Research Institute, said: “Taken together, these findings provide an important counter to conventional narratives about how the KS2 [key stage 2] tests can have serious negative impacts upon children’s wellbeing.”

He added: “Given what we found, there does not seem to be strong enough evidence to support KS2 tests to be scrapped on wellbeing grounds.

“The tests play a fundamental role feeding into school accountability metrics, and our findings suggest they should continue in their current form for the foreseeable future.”

But education unions and campaigners have said the data does not take into account a number of reforms to primary assessment in recent years.

Delegates at the NEU’s annual conference in April reiterated their support for the abolition of Sats tests in primary schools.

The conference voted to “mount a vigorous campaign - using the fact that no statutory primary tests have taken place for two years amid Covid-19 - to reignite calls for an alternative assessment strategy”.

On the UCL study, Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “Unfortunately, the researchers have drawn conclusions about the future of primary testing based on analysis of the regime almost 10 years ago.

“Since then, the curriculum has been radically changed in ways that many experts believed at the time were ‘fatally flawed’ and ‘overly prescriptive’ with subject content that was characterised as endless lists of spellings and rules.”

He added: “It would be much more helpful to study the impact of more recent testing.”

Tiffnie Harris, primary and data specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It is reassuring that this research finds that national primary school tests have little effect on children’s happiness and wellbeing.

“However, the data these findings are based on is now nine years out of date and these tests are in need of reform for other reasons.

“They are too narrow a measure of primary schools, can distort the curriculum and could be improved by using technology to make them more personalised and adaptive around the pupil.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “Given the crucial work schools are now doing to support educational recovery, which has undoubtedly had a negative impact on pupil wellbeing, NAHT is deeply disappointed to see the government proceeding with a full suite of primary assessments next year.

“We all hope that life in school can return to normal as quickly as possible, but that does not mean that all aspects of education need to return exactly as they were.”

A spokesperson for the campaign group More Than A Score added: “This research is based on data from 2012 before significant changes were made to the system by Michael Gove [then education secretary] in 2016.

“Teachers, heads and parents agree that these reforms impacted in a negative way on the lives and wellbeing of teachers and pupils alike.”