THE Government’s decision to scrap Sats tests for 14-year-olds has been met with a mixed reaction from Worcester headteachers.

Alun Williams, headteacher at Nunnery Wood High School, called the move a “sham”, and Sean Devlin, headteacher at Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College said he was disappointed. Meanwhile, Neil Morris, headteacher at Christopher Whitehead Language College was “delighted” at the decision.

Schools secretary Ed Balls announced on Tuesday that the key stage three tests “were not justified” and would be dropped with immediate effect.

However, he has defied calls for the abolition of tests for 11-year-olds in primary schools, saying such a move would mean letting parents and children down.

This year’s SATs test turned into a farce when thousands of schools were left without their results and others complained about the accuracy of the marking.

At Christopher Whitehead Language College, Mr Morris had to return all of his school’s English papers, for the third year.

“For the last three years we have sent our English papers back because they were not correct,” he said. “I am delighted that the Government has decided to scrap these tests.”

He added: “It is about time the Government started to trust the professionals. We have been calling for them to scrap the Sats for a long time now. All of these exams kill the joy of teaching and of learning.

“This decision now frees us up and I’m sure there will be a rise in standards as a result.”

But Mr Williams, at Nunnery Wood, wasn’t so sure.

“The Sats were flawed,” he said. “But they did provide a useful and important progress check about half way through secondary education. The fact that they were external was helpful as well.”

Like Mr Devlin at Blessed Edwards, Mr Williams said he thought the tests had been scrapped as a direct response to this summer’s fiasco.

“This was done purely for pragmatic reasons,” said Mr Devlin.

Both said they were shocked by the announcement as there had been no fore warning.

“I am very very disappointed that such a major change has taken place without any notification,” Mr Devlin added. “Where was the consultation?”

The key stage three Sats will be replaced with school-based assessments by teachers in the early years of secondary education.

There will also be new US-style report cards to provide parents with a simpler and more comprehensive snapshot of a school's performance.