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Motherland star Anna Maxwell Martin, backed by a coalition of parents and campaigners, has issued a stark warning about the “devastating effects” of primary school tests on children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The group, which includes 22 parent organisations, is calling on Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to reconsider reforms to the primary SATs.
An open letter, due to be delivered on Tuesday, claims the current SATs system “actively disadvantages” children with SEND, often causing them to disengage from school as they transition to secondary education.
Ms Maxwell Martin has previously spoken about her personal experiences of navigating the SEND system as a parent.
Ms Maxwell Martin said: “The Government needs to focus more on how to make things better for children in schools, especially those with SEND.”
She called for a more inclusive approach that recognizes children’s mental health and individual needs.
“This is a systemic failure of our evaluation system, not the fault of any individual teacher or principal,” he said.
In 2025, about 24 per cent of children with SEND passed their SATs, meeting the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics.
The open letter states that a large proportion of children with SEND who fail the SATs “spend their entire year up to Year 6 believing that they are not smart enough”.
It says, “They feel they don’t deserve it. They work hard every day, but the odds are so stacked against them that the weight of it all eventually breaks them.”
The government responded to the curriculum review last week by saying it had “no plans to radically change the shape” of primary exams.
This will make some changes to the way writing is assessed, grammar and punctuation. Children with access to SEND in Year 1 will be given more support to improve their reading, but only minor modifications were suggested in Year 6 Sat.
The signatories to the letter said the current SAT system limited the curriculum and encouraged test-based teaching.
In a survey of 520 sent to parents whose children did not reach the expected standard in the SATs by campaign group Omnisys, two-thirds (67 percent) found that SAT results had a negative impact on their child’s desire to go to school.
Half also said that their child’s self-esteem had been hurt and believed that sats would have a lasting negative impact.
“Forcing children into a system that actively harms them is not the solution. The system has to be changed so that our children want to participate in it,” the letter said.
“Reaching secondary school is already a vulnerable time. When we want to work with schools to build confidence, the SATs destroy it – ruining self-esteem and nervous systems.
“Too many children leave primary school disenchanted with learning, leaving only with a label of failure for all their efforts.”
The government was expected to implement its reforms to the SEND system as part of the schools white paper this autumn.
But Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson recently announced it would be delayed until 2026 to allow more time to test the reform proposals with families as well as teachers and experts.
Send parent Kirsty Hadley, from consultancy and campaign group Generation Alphabet, said: “Ahead of the schools white paper, Bridget Phillipson said she wanted to listen to parents, especially parents of children with Send.
“So, we’re saying loud and clear: Think again about Sats. Forcing kids into a system that actively harms them is not the answer. The system has to be changed so our kids want to go to school.”
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at school leaders union NAHT, said there is an “urgent need” for the government to reconsider the value of the SATs.
He said, “If statutory tests are here to stay, they should be designed to be accessible to most pupils, they should recognize the achievement and progress of all children, and they should not damage children’s self-confidence or cause distress.”