Key Stage 2 National Curriculum Tests

In May, year 6 children across England sat their end of key stage 2 national curriculum tests—known as SATs. Schools were expecting the results of these tests to be returned to them on Tuesday 7 July, but I am informing the House that there will be a delay until Thursday 16 July.

Pearson Education Ltd was awarded the contract to deliver KS2 tests on behalf of the Standards and Testing Agency in April 2024, and it has responsibility for all test logistics, including delivering and collecting test papers from schools, marking and returning results to schools.

The Government were told on Wednesday 1 July that Pearson was not ready to upload results to the online portal for schools and required additional time to ensure that the system is ready for schools to access.

The Government are very clear that the delay is due to issues with Pearson’s systems and not concerns about the quality of the tests or the results. The test scripts have been marked and quality assured, and the standards maintenance process, which allows us to show comparison with previous cohorts, was completed on schedule on Thursday 2 July 2026. The Standards and Testing Agency is confident that it had sufficient representative data to undertake the standards maintenance process that underpins our ability to compare the expected standard of the tests from year to year.

Pearson has fully apologised for its failure to return results on time, and for the impact on schools, pupils and parents. The inconvenience that this delay will cause to school staff, parents and pupils is unacceptable.

We will use all the provisions in the contract to ensure that Pearson is held to account for its failures in delivery, and will also review all possible options for future delivery, alongside conducting a thorough review into how such a serious failing could have occurred.

[HCWS184]