A snap poll on Sats results day found that the majority of teachers felt this year’s tests of ten and 11-year-olds are unfair.

The tests in reading, maths and spelling, punctuation and grammar (Spag) were taken by more than 550,000 children in May. Teachers also have to make assessments of pupils’ writing against a set of statutory criteria.

The Sats results, published on Tuesday, revealed that 61 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in the reading, writing and maths, up from 53 per cent in the previous year.

During the day, the Tes ran a twitter poll, which 279 people voted in, which asked “Do you think this year’s Sats were fair?”

The final results revealed that 58 per cent did not think the tests were fair, compared to 42 per cent who thought they were.

Simon Kidwell, head of Hartford Manor primary in Northwich, Cheshire, said: “For two consecutive years the reading paper has been unfair. In 2016, the complexity of the texts and poor sequencing of questions presented a significant challenge and subsequently 65 per cent of children reached age-related standards.

“In 2017 the texts were more accessible, but the pass mark increased by five marks and 71 per cent reached the standard. Children, who are good readers, are being judged to be working below an arbitrary standard. In future years, we should be reporting scaled scores only and abolishing the simplistic pass-fail language that undermines children’s confidence and fuels crude league table analysis.”

On the Tes facebook page comments on the national results included:

• “How sad for the 39% who have worked their socks off for 7 years and all their teachers. This is WRONG. They should not be labelled failures.” (Jenny Jayne)
• “I wish they would, if they have to keep Sats at all, grade papers so you can see what children have really achieved. You’ve passed, you’ve failed… it’s just so black and white and doesn’t tell the whole story. Kids could have missed out being ‘expected’ by one mark and suddenly they’re a failure.” (Sharon Kendrick)
• “Poor kids being under this kind of pressure for nothing more than Ofsted. Then they will have to do other tests as soon as they go into secondary as Sats mean nothing to them either.” (Lee Jones)

The Sats were reformed last year to match the new curriculum - and the introduction of the new tests was condemned by union leaders as “chaotic” and even led to threats of a boycott.

The reading test was seen as “kinder” this year but there were concerns that the maths test was tougher.

The government has recently closed its consultation on changes to the primary assessment system - including allowing teachers more flexibility judging the writing assessments, rather than insisting that children must meet all the set criteria to be at the “expected standard”.