Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made on the importance of KS2 SATs results for the 2020-21 Year 7 cohort during the transition period into secondary schools.

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak and associated school closures, the Department made the decision to cancel key stage 2 national curriculum assessments in the 2019/20 academic year. As a result, there were no formal assessment and reporting requirements for that year. The Department recognises the gap in information this creates on pupils’ attainment for the year 7 cohort of pupils in the 2020/21 academic year. Schools must continue to share pupils’ common transfer files with secondary schools and make arrangements to share additional information as required.