'Super SATs' To Be Introduced For Brightest 11 Year-Olds

The "super SATs" papers will be aimed at gifted 11 year-olds, whose work in class is at the standard expected of a 14 year-old. Results will feature in league tables of primary schools' performance, in a move which ministers hope will encourage teachers to devote more attention to high ability children. Secondary schools will also be informed of which children pass the test, to ensure they end up in the top sets.

The first of the externally-marked exams, called Level 6 tests, will be taken in May. The standard expected of an average 11 year-old is Level 4. More than 11,000 primaries, about three quarters of the total in England, have ordered the English and maths papers, but ministers have not publicised the initiative until now. It is likely that about 86,000 pupils, 15 per cent of the total, will sit the new tests in addition to standard SATs exams.

Ministers said the tests were a central element in the Coalition's drive to ensure that high ability children reach their potential. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said: "Every child should be given the opportunity to achieve to the best of their abilities. "These tests will ensure that the brightest pupils are stretched and standards are raised for all."

This year's results will be published in the summer, the Department for Education said last night, giving a broad picture of the success of the most able pupils. They will feature in league tables as part of a new measure showing how much progress pupils overall have made between the ages of seven and 11.

The precise Level 6 pass rate for each school will not be published this year, but may be in future years. Denise Yates, chief executive of the National Association for Gifted Children, welcomed the move as "a stepping stone towards a national strategy for supporting children with high learning potential".

But Margaret Morrissey, founder of the Parents Aloud group, said: "The answer is not special tests, adding to children's stress levels and then saying schools are failing them." Head teachers also raised fears that primaries will be "named and shamed" in league tables for not getting enough children to Level 6.

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