SOME Warrington parents have vented their frustrations following the sitting of primary school SATs exams.

This year's exams have come under fire by headteachers across the country, who have claimed that the difficulty of the English reading paper was such that it has caused undue stress to pupils.

One teacher in Warrington said that there were tears from some students in the exam hall due to the difficulty of the reading paper.

As per TES, this year's reading paper consisted of three texts, amounting to 2,106 words, to be read and have questions answered on in one hour.

TES magazine said: "This means reading the booklet alone would take 23 minutes and 30 seconds, leaving just 36 minutes and 30 seconds to answer the test questions."

When asked for opinions on this year's SATs reading paper, Warrington Guardian readers had mixed opinions.

One parent, Vicki Thomas, said: "My daughter did them, she said they weren't too bad compared to her mock sats, her only comments were the reading paper was not an interesting story and the second maths reasoning was harder than the first.

"I guess only time will tell when we get the results and can compare the two.

"As long as she tried her best that's all I can ask."

This echoes similar sentiments expressed by the Department for Education at the time the row erupted, when it said that SATs were 'meant to be challenging,' despite criticism from teachers.

Another reader, Callum Waughy, explained that the educational gaps due to Covid-19 should not be overlooked: "I think the difficulty of the SATs is reasonable considering the ability and potential of children.

"The issue is that they've not taken into consideration that almost two years of school was missed.

"That's essentially year 6s at a year 4 level.

"Two years of prep for these SATs down the drain."

Suzanne Green echoed this, saying: "They were shocking considering they lost almost two years of school due to Covid-19."

Eleanor Haines added: "I've always felt that SATS are for the school and not for the children."

Responding to Eleanor, Sarah Kirkham-Slack said: "They're not even for the schools really, they're so the Government can rank everyone and see who's 'failing'."

On the flip side, Dawn Wilkinson said: "My son did his last week, he has an Educational Healthcare Plan and attends an SEMH [Social, Emotional and Mental Health] school.

"I was really proud of him and he said his were fine."

Meanwhile, schools minister Nick Gibb has acknowledged the difficulty of the SATs exams, and has pledged to review the controversial reading paper.

Mr Gibb said: "I will certainly look at this, because I know that there has been concern expressed by some schools.

“They do have to test a range of ability to make sure we can show what proportion of children are exceeding the standards and so on. But we don’t want these tests to be too hard for children. That’s not the purpose.

“The purpose is to test the range of ability and the Standards and Testing Agency is charged with making sure that these tests are appropriate for this age group.”