THE headteacher of a Worcester school has branded the marking of this year’s Sats tests for 14 year olds as an “immoral, educational fiasco”.

Neil Morris, of Christopher Whitehead Language College, said he had “no faith” in the marking system after some of his pupils received poor results in the key stage three tests.

In one English question some pupils received just one mark out of 18.

In an e-mail to Worcester MP Mike Foster, he pointed out “basic errors” in marking, including pupils being given the wrong level based on their achieved scores and pupils recorded as absent for all papers, despite having taken two of three papers - which makes them eligible to attain a level.

“It becomes transparent that all the Sats exams have once again not been consistently, professionally marked,” he said.

Mr Morris’s e-mail came as the Government went ahead with the publication of provisional key stage three results today, despite many schools still missing hundreds of papers. However, a breakdown of results by local authority area will not be published because there is still insufficient data available.

A number of Worcestershire schools have been caught up in the national Sats debacle with many receiving key stage two and key stage three results late, and some not at all.

Mr Morris said some pupils received an “N” for papers not being submitted for marking when they had been, while other papers had come back with marks to say results were still pending, when the papers had been included for marking.

Attached to his email, dated Friday, July 18, were two pupils’ answers to an English key stage three question on Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, for which both received one mark out of 18 - results against which Mr Morris has now appealed.

“We have no faith in this system, in the competency of those charged with ensuring the six months’ work is accurately reflected in a level,” he said.

He blasted the “inaccurate” and “flawed” Sats process and called for their replacement by teacher assessments to ensure a more “consistent” way of tracking students’ learning.

“The Sats assessment this year is worthless,” he added.

Mr Foster described the marking of this year’s Sats results as “unacceptable” and said an independent inquiry was now under way “We [The Government] put the awarding of exam marking out to the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculums Authority) and it is clear they just have not got the right contractor,” he said.