Angela Rayner MP, Labour Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on the Government’s U-turn on requiring Year 7s to re-sit Maths and English SAT tests, said:

“It is no wonder that after the summer SATs results chaos that the Government have been forced to U-turn on their manifesto commitment to make children take resits just as they start secondary school.

“Under the Tories parents and teachers are struggling to navigate their way through the Government’s constant chopping and changing to exams and assessments. The chaos surrounding results year on year is creating confusion for parents, who are struggling to identify how to support their child to improve, and extra bureaucracy for school leaders and teachers, who are finding it extremely difficult to plan ahead to ensure high quality education for children.

“Theresa May has no answers to the real challenges facing all our children – school budgets falling, the teacher shortage crisis, rising class sizes and a failure to give all children the best start in life.”