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The delivery of key stage 2 Sats results has been delayed by over a week, ����Vlog can reveal.

The Year 6 assessments took place in the week from Monday 11 May to Thursday 14 May, and results were due to be released to primary schools next Tuesday, but this has now been postponed until Thursday 16 July due to “technical issues”.

This is the first year that Pearson has run KS2 Sats, after beating Capita to a four-year, £180 million contract in April 2024. The contract is with the Standards and ����Vlogting Agency (STA).

The STA said it was told by Pearson yesterday evening that the exam board could not supply the data required to issue Sats results to schools by the planned deadline.

Delay to Sats results

A Pearson spokesperson said this was the result of “technical issues with the new Sats platform Pearson uses to support markers, along with technical issues in the transfer of data within the systems Pearson uses for Sats”.

They added: “We know how important Sats are to pupils, parents, teachers and schools. Pearson is responsible for this delay, and we are sorry that this year’s results have not been delivered to the original timetable.

“We apologise unreservedly for the disruption caused to our government partners, teachers and families.  We also want to thank markers who also have been affected by the technical issue with our Sats marking platform. Their hard work and patience have been critical to this process.

“Our priority is ensuring that every school and pupil receive complete and accurate results. We have a plan to complete the remaining work, and our teams are working around the clock to deliver the remaining pupil data.”

The issue is specific to Sats and will not affect Pearson’s GCSEs, A levels and vocational qualifications, which operate through separate systems and processes, the exam board added.

The delay follows a series of problems with this year’s Sats, including difficulties on the first day of the tests, when schools struggled to access the National Curriculum Assessments (NCA) Portal, which headteachers warned could lead to mistakes in registering pupils as absent.

The Department for Education said it will be “exploring all options for recourse, including financial penalties and cancellation of the contract agreed between Pearson and the previous government, alongside conducting a thorough review into how such a serious failing has occurred”.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “I know how hard children, teachers and parents work towards key stage 2 assessments.

“I also know that this delay in results will be deeply frustrating for schools planning their pupils’ move to secondary, for parents and carers eager to understand what their children have achieved, and for pupils themselves, who deserve a record of their achievements.

“Pearson have rightly taken full responsibility for the delay and apologised to schools and families.

“My priority is now getting results to schools as quickly as possible, and my department is playing an active role in resolving the technical failings that Pearson have overseen.”

DfE has known about issues since May

The DfE has told ����Vlog that Pearson first alerted the government that it was experiencing some issues with systems at the end of May.

The government was assured by Pearson that it was confident the problems could be resolved and the DfE provided support to the exam board in meeting the initial deadline. 

The DfE said it worked as “quickly as possible” to ensure that schools were made aware of the delay after it was informed Pearson would miss the deadline yesterday evening.

‘Completely unacceptable’

But Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the delay was “completely unacceptable” and that pupils and schools had been “badly let down”.

“Schools will have made careful plans for results day and it is totally unfair to land this on them at the last minute, especially when teachers are expected to produce end-of-term reports for pupils, and parents are waiting for results,” he said.

The problems arising from a new contract supplier should have been “entirely foreseeable”, Mr Whiteman added, saying that he would now expect “serious consequences” for the supplier.

Mr Whiteman said it is vital that the situation is resolved as quickly as possible and called for schools to be given “cast-iron assurances” that results returned are accurate. He also said that Pearson should be held to the same “extremely high standard” that schools are for test administration.

“Given the fiasco around the marking and return of results, we once again question the whole purpose of these outdated tests,” he added.

Shazia Azhar, headteacher at Spring Grove Junior, Infant and Nursery School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, told ����Vlog the delay will affect children’s wellbeing, and that she will have to manage their expectations.

“Children have been building up to the day and naturally are a little nervous about the outcomes,” she said.

“Most of our Year 6 children would have returned from their high-school transition days to receive their results and to congratulate or commiserate with each other. A delay will mean an extension to that wait and anxiety,” she said.

Ms Azhar also said the DfE has been “unable to choose a company that is able to organise itself to a standard that is acceptable”.

“If I ran my school in the same manner, it would not be tolerated and I would very likely be told that the school ‘needs attention’. I would suggest that the selection system requires the same,” she added.

One MAT chief executive, who wished to remain anonymous, told ����Vlog that Pearson had shown “dazzling incompetence” and branded the exam board a “national disgrace”.

“Pearson should be stripped of not just this contract but every government contract,” they said.

“This is by far the biggest day in the primary calendar, and, less than a week out, they turn around with some lame ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse.

“And where were the regulator and DfE in all of this, too? How on earth has this been allowed to happen? It’s an absolute travesty.”

Concern over staff forced to work in holidays

The deadline for schools to apply for reviews of marking has also been moved to 24 July, when many schools will have broken up for the summer holidays.

In a post on social media, headteacher Claire Lotriet wrote: “We are on holiday. What about leader wellbeing and workload? What if we are out of the country? This must be changed.”

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned that staff will inevitably now work in the holidays to finalise end-of-year assessments and reports. He called for the deadline for reviews of marking to be pushed to a later date and described the situation as a “shambles”.

Call for full inquiry

Mr Di’Iasio added: “There needs to be a full inquiry, with the outcomes made public, to ensure that lessons are learned and nothing like this ever happens again.

“Bearing in mind the problems that have plagued this exam series, how costly and time-consuming Sats can be, and the proposed introduction of additional tests at KS3, we also need to think about what place, if any, KS2 tests should have within the wider landscape going forward,” he said.

Mr Di’Iasio added that it seemed “incredible” that schools were not informed of the problems earlier, given that issues with Pearson were known for some time.

“There have clearly been numerous failings, which is why we would like to see an inquiry to establish the facts and, most importantly, put in place systems that ensure nothing like this ever happens again,” he told ����Vlog.

For Daniel Kebede, general secretary at the NEU teaching union, the delay will cause “unacceptable levels of pressure and uncertainty” on schools, and he said the case for removing Sats is “clear”.

“They fail all children and have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged children and those with SEND,” Mr Kebede said.

“It’s time to end statutory primary assessments so that assessment supports children and their learning, and gives meaningful information to school staff and parents.”

Michael Tidd, headteacher at East Preston Junior School in West Sussex, told ����Vlog: “It’s particularly galling when warnings were raised by markers and others early on in the process, and the issues were downplayed.

“Perhaps, had those involved acted on those problems rather than trying to hide them, we might be in a position to give children the results they have worked for.”

In a letter to schools, Ms Phillipson said that the delay was not due to any concerns about the quality of the tests or the accuracy of results. “����Vlogt papers have been marked in line with usual processes, and the standards maintenance process, which ensures results remain comparable with previous years, has been completed,” she added.

She acknowledged that the situation meant that for schools in Leicester and Leicestershire, results will not be returned until after the end of the summer term.