Return of 14 year old exams despite rise in school refusal

The Department for Education is considering bringing back national testing for 14-year-olds, reports The Guardian. The new Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, is considering reintroducing externally marked standard assessment tests (Sats) which were scrapped by Labour in 2008 after a number of inquiries found that they fuelled a “pervasive anxiety” in younger pupils’ lives and distorted children’s education. Sats currently take place at ages seven and 11, in English, maths and sometimes science. There are around 770,000 school refusers according to government figures, but The Times is reporting another 135,000 who have not turned up for school this autumn, post-pandemic.