The Government has U-turned on plans to make pupils resit SATs exams at secondary school if they fall behind in maths and reading.
Education Secretary Justine Greening announced on Wednesday she would ditch the plans.
“We will not introduce statutory mathematics and reading resits on children’s arrival in Year 7,” she said in statement to the Commons.
“Rather, we will focus on the steps needed to ensure a child catches up lost ground. High-quality resit papers will be made available for teachers to use if they wish, as part of their ongoing assessments.
“In addition, we will introduce a targeted package of support to make sure that struggling pupils are supported by teachers to catch up in Year 7.”
Nansi Ellis, assistant general secretary at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: “Children, parents and teachers will be relieved that the toxic proposal to force children to resit their SATs tests in their first year of secondary school has been shelved.
“We hope teachers will find the new teacher assessment guidance useful. It is good to hear that the key stage 1 grammar, punctuation and spelling tests will be optional again this summer.”
Kim Johnson, president of the NAHT union said: “Secondary leaders will welcome the Government’s plans to halt planned resits of SATs in year seven. These tests would not have helped children or teachers.
“It is disappointing that the Government has not decided to change its rigid marking system to allow teachers to make a balanced judgment of a student’s writing skills at the end of primary.
“At present the system seriously disadvantages pupils with special educational needs and dyslexia.”