Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2025 to Question 28734 on Prisoners: Parents, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of having a parent in prison on SAT performances; and whether she plans to adopt moderated teacher assessments.

The department does not hold information on the impact of having a parent in prison on end of key stage 2 attainment nor does it carry out such analysis.

The purpose of the end of key stage 2 assessments is to understand pupils' attainment, including areas where they may need more support in order to support their transition into secondary school. Schools can use the assessment in this way to support pupils who may be experiencing an impact in attainment due to having a parent or primary carer in prison.

Statutory teacher assessment judgments take place at the end of key stage 2 for writing and science. Local authorities are required to externally moderate the teacher assessment of writing within at least 25% of maintained schools and 25% of academies and participating independent schools that opt into local authorities’ external moderation provisions. External moderation aims to give confidence that schools’ judgements are accurate and consistent with national standards.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review panel have been clear that SATs are an important part of assessing children’s progress throughout primary school, and that the system of primary assessment is currently working well. As the Review continues its second phase, it will consider how to build on effective systems to support the attainment of all children.