Nearly 90% of 10- and 11-year old pupils in England feel pressure to do well in tests, a survey suggests. ComRes researchers for the BBC’s Newsround interviewed 750 10- and 11-year-olds who will be taking Key Stage Two Sats tests this week. More than half (59%) said they felt some pressure to do well while (28%) felt "a lot of pressure".
The government says the tests need not be stressful and rigorous testing helps raise standards in schools. In the survey carried out last month, children were asked to pick a variety of words describing their mood in the run-up to the tests:
l 59% said they were nervous
l 39%, worried
l 27%, stressed
l 17%, sad and moody
l and 16% said it affected their sleep.
But most were not unduly distressed, with almost half (48%) saying they did not mind taking the tests and an additional 14% saying they enjoyed them.
Some of the more positive words children used to describe their feelings about tests were:
l confident - 21%
l excited - 13%
l and happy - 11%
Only 10% said they hated taking exams. But 32% said they worried more about schoolwork when they had tests coming up and 25% said they found it hard to concentrate.
Last Tuesday some parents kept their children off school in a day of protest about primary tests in England - and more than 40,000 signed a petition calling for a boycott.
The protest, organised by the Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign, complained of a damaging culture of over-testing, saying children are "over-tested, over-worked and in a school system that places more importance on test results and league tables than children's happiness and joy of learning".
