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Figures show a sharp rise in the number of schools reported to the Government’s Standards and Testing Agency following cases of “maladministration” in 2012.
Pupils can see results lowered or written off altogether for any act that could jeopardise the "integrity, security or confidentiality" of the tests, schools have been warned.
Cases typically include papers being opened early, teachers assisting pupils in the exam hall, cheating by children themselves or changes being made to scripts after the test.
The report showed that 370 cases were reported in 2012, up from 292 in 2011 – a 26.7 per cent rise.
The figures cover all primary school tests, including Sats exams taken in English and maths by 11-year-olds and the Government’s new phonics reading check for six-year-olds. It also covers “Level 6” tests for the brightest 11-year-olds.
The overall rise in maladministration was partly down to an increase in the number of phonics test cases reported, the STA suggested.
More than three-quarters of cases of maladministration in Sats tests happened while the papers were being taken, the report shows.
This included 94 cases of test administrators "over-aiding" children, up from 91 in 2011 and 28 cases of children cheating, compared with 25 in 2011.
In total, 584 pupils had their results changed or annulled last year, the report said, although this was less than 0.1 per cent of pupils who took part in the Sats tests.
A breakdown of the figures shows that 399 pupils at 20 schools had their English and/or maths results cancelled.
Six schools had exams taken by their entire cohort of 11-year-olds annulled, compared with seven the year earlier.
The disclosure follows warnings by teachers’ leaders that staff are increasingly being forced to cheat the exams system by inflating pupils’ results to hit “unrealistic” targets.
A survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers last year found that more than a third of teachers admitted using tactics that could undermine their “integrity”. This includes manipulating test scores, re-writing pupils’ homework and helping them complete coursework projects.
Earlier this year, Gareth Robertshaw, head teacher of St Bartholomew's Church of England Primary in Bolton was struck off by the profession’s regulator after it emerged he manipulated 11-year-olds’ test papers.
A hearing was told that the head accessed Satss exams in English and maths from a locked safe and amended them before sending the scripts to an exam board for marking “with a view to improving their attainment results”.
A Standards and Testing Agency spokesman said: "Results were amended at only 58 primary schools - that amounts to fewer than 0.5 per cent of the thousands of schools where pupils took the phonics check and the Key Stage 2 tests.
"In the vast majority of cases, no action needed to be taken because it was decided the schools were not guilty of maladministration."
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