The majority of parents and teachers questioned said they were opposed to the tests, while no teacher said they believed they are good for their pupils. Common stress symptoms they reported in the children included anxiety, misbehaving, lack of interest in school, difficulty sleeping and mood swings.
Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat education spokesman and a former teacher, said SATs should be abolished in England as well as Wales and Northern Ireland, where plans are already in place to axe the tests. He said, 'We are doing immeasurable damage to the education of our children, and to the children themselves, through raising levels of stress for little purpose other than ministers crowing in Parliament.'
The survey was sent to 147 schools in England, and teachers and parents of children in Years 2 and 3 were invited to respond. It found high incidences of stress among children following their SATs, with 38 per cent of parents of Year 2 children and just over half (53 per cent) of parents of Year 3 children believing their child to be stressed and Year 2 children particularly stressed just before and during the summer term, when SATs are taken.
But some teachers blamed the children's stress on their parents' pressure to succeed. The survey also found that more than twice as many parents as children were anxious about the tests. One parent remarked, 'I feel it is the parents' responsibility - a "keep up with the Jones" mentality.
Childhood is not just about education in the academic sense, rather a learning ground for life.'
Teachers' responses to the survey showed that just over two-thirds (68 per cent) believed SATs were bad for pupils. Some said continuous assessment was a less stressful and more accurate alternative to SATs. One teacher reported, 'Children noticeably achieved results lower than teacher assessment in several cases.'
Early years consultant Margaret Edgington said she was not surprised by the survey's findings and that 'the knock-down pressure has an effect on children at the Foundation Stage and Year 1'. She said, 'I've been calling for the abandonment of SATs for over a year. We are in danger of harming our children quite badly. We need a more play-based approach in Year 1 and 2, like the rest of Europe.
'Education is too formal too soon. Children need to learn actively and be engaged in the learning process.'
Last year a survey carried out by the National Union of Teachers found more than nine out of ten teachers in England supported a boycott of SATs tests for seven-year-olds.
