TWO out of 15 adults who took a maths exam managed to meet the expected standard for ten and 11-year-olds.

A group of parents took the English and maths SATs tests as part of the Big SATs Sit-In, a national campaign organised by education campaign group More Than a Score and supported by Save Our Schools Brighton and Hove.

The event was held in Westdene, Brighton, and was one of a number of exams organised across the country to raise awareness of the “absurd” questions and time constraints faced by children taking the tests.

Gemma Haley, co-founder of Save Our Schools, said: “It’s an awareness raising exercise, giving parents the opportunity to see what their ten and eleven-year-olds endure when they are put through their SATs.

“In many schools they focus on just English and maths and miss out on a varied curriculum, when they should be getting them ready, emotionally, for the big leap to secondary school.”

Parents and participants took a ten-minute maths test and a ten-minute English test, then marked their papers.

Nine out of the 15 people taking part met the expected standard of six out of ten in the English exam, but just two met the expected standard of eight out of 14 for the maths exam.

In 2017, it was found that 39 per cent of pupils in England failed to meet the Government’s expected standard in reading, writing and maths in their SATs tests.

Gemma said: “We feel that the current exam system is not fit for purpose.

“It’s supposed to measure the effectiveness of schools but children become data points.

“To have to move between schools while being told you’ve failed is horrible and can really affect children’s confidence.”

Maths questions involved long multiplication and division, and the English paper required people to be able to rewrite a sentence into the present progressive tense.

Catherine Michie, who took the test, said: “I sat my maths exam when it was still an O level, and scored six out of 14 on this one.

“My daughter is five and has just started school, so I took this test to learn a bit more about what she will experience.

“She loves reading, but the fact that she’s got to focus on how words are classed rather than their meaning could take the magic out of reading for her.

“She should be learning to love and explore language.”