Dame Christine Gilbert to lead review into causes of delay
The delayed results of this year’s Key Stage 2 national curriculum assessments (SATs) have been released, and show a slight improvement on last year. 63 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined), compared to 62 per cent last year.
Attainment also increased or remained stable in all subjects compared to 2025. In maths, 75 per cent of pupils met the expected standard, up from 74 per cent in 2025. There was a similar increase in writing, with 73 per cent meeting the expected standard compared to 72 per cent the year before. Attainment of the expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling was also up a single percentage point, to 74 per cent. Meanwhile the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in maths and science was unchanged, at 75 per cent and 82 per cent respectively.
SATs results have been improving in recent years, having dropped to just 59 per cent of pupils reaching the expected standard in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic in 2022. However, they have not yet returned to the 65 per cent attainment achieved just before the pandemic in 2019.
This year’s results were due to be published on 7 July, but were delayed until 16 July due to ‘technical’ problems at Pearson, who have the contract to administer the assessments. Schools originally faced having just a few days to submit reviews of marking or clerical errors, but the deadline for these to be submitted has now been extended to 7 September. The Department for Education (DfE) has also announced that Dame Christine Gilbert, a former chief inspector of Ofsted, will lead a review into the postponement of results. It will examine in more detail the issues that led to the delay, as well as looking at the roles Pearson, the Standards and Testing Agency (STA); the DfE and Ofqual played in the process. Dame Christine, who is the current chair of both Ofsted and the Education Endowment Foundation, will also look at what changes might be made to improve the delivery and operation of the tests, avoiding further disruption to schools and pupils in the future.The review is expected to conclude by the autumn.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson welcomed the results and hailed the contribution of school staff, saying: ‘I know the delay in results – which Pearson rightly apologised for – has caused frustration, but the real and sustained progress we are now seeing in pupil’s achievements deserves to be celebrated. That is testament to the dedication of teachers, leaders and support staff.’
Also commenting on the results Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: ‘Children, teachers and school leaders have worked incredibly hard throughout the year and deserve huge credit for their achievements. However, these tests take up a disproportionate amount of time and place enormous strain on children and school staff for little obvious benefit – and this has been compounded by another unacceptable delay in delivering results this year. SATs tell teachers nothing they don’t already know from working with pupils every day and are instead unfairly used to judge and compare school performance. The curriculum and assessment review was a missed opportunity to reduce unnecessary primary school tests – but given the misguided weight that continues to be attached to them, the very least children and schools deserve is for the process to run smoothly and results to be returned on time.’
The DfE website has further details of both the overall results and the scaled scores tables. Further provisional statistics will be published in early September 2026.