THOUSANDS of children starting secondary school this year finished primary education without meeting the Government standard, according to the Department for Education.

Key Stage 2 results for the 11-year-olds who took their SATs in Brighton and Hove in May show that 33 per cent did not achieve the required score in all their tests, 872 children in all.

That is an attainment rate of 67 per cent.

This year, 2,643 Year 6 pupils took the tests, which are intended to measure how well a child is doing in three key subjects, reading, mathematics, and grammar.

They are also used to evaluate how well primary schools are preparing their pupils for secondary school.

Girls did fractionally better than boys, with 69 per cent of girls meeting the standard compared to 65 per cent of boys.

In West Sussex 39 per cent did not achieve the required score in all their tests, 3,432 children in all. That’s an attainment rate of 61 per cent, lower than the England average of 64 per cent.

In West Sussex 8,801 Year 6 pupils took the tests and girls did slightly better than boys, with 65 per cent of girls meeting the standard compared to 58 per cent of boys.

In East Sussex 36 per cent did not achieve the required score in all their tests, 1,923 children in all, an attainment rate of 64 per cent.

A total of 5,342 Year 6 pupils in East Sussex took the tests, with girls again slightly better than boys, with 68 per cent of girls meeting the standard compared to 60 per cent of boys.

But campaign group More than a Score says that schools looking to climb league tables focus too much on high SAT scores, and that SATs have “failed a generation of children”.

It says that younger children, who can get anxious taking a test, should be assessed in a less stressful way.

During Year 6, students are also evaluated separately by their teachers in reading, writing, science and maths. These assessments provide a broader picture of how well children are doing at school.

The children did much better in KS2 teacher assessments than in the tests.

In Brighton they did best in science, where 84 per cent of pupils met the required standard, and worst in maths and writing, where 80 per cent of pupils made the grade.

James Williams, a lecturer in education at the University of Sussex, said teacher assessments are better.

He said: “A SAT score is a very crude measurement of what children understand. In my view it cannot replace the judgment of teachers who know the children and have witnessed their progress over time.

“We’ve a tendency to equate not meeting some arbitrary Government standard with children failing, that’s simply incorrect.

“Not meeting an arbitrary standard doesn’t mean that these children are illiterate or innumerate, it simply shows that on a particular day, in a limited test, they didn’t score enough marks – that shouldn’t define a child and their achievements.

“The SATs have never been trusted by teachers or the schools who receive the children. I suspect many of the children will have been assessed again using a school-based test.

“So much testing takes away from teaching. Education is not about simply taking tests. It should be about gaining an understanding of different subjects and gaining skills.”