My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, has established an Expert Group on Testing and Assessment. The group is reviewing pupil well being as part of its remit, giving consideration to what advice should be provided to schools to ensure that preparation for national curriculum tests at Key Stage 2 is proportionate and educationally appropriate. The group’s findings will be used to inform future plans for testing and assessment.
The evaluation of Single Level Tests under the Making Good Progress pilot included consideration of pupils’ experience of testing in an interim Report (Evaluation of the Making Good Progress, Research Report DCSF-RR065), which was published in December 2008. The majority of interviewees who commented on pupils’ Single Level Test experiences in the report, considered that pupils were generally not stressed by the tests involved, because they were pitched at the ‘right’ level.