Primary Sats ‘working well’ but Gove’s Ebacc needs scrutiny, review chief says

Unions and parents groups had lobbied for the assessment and curriculum review to curtail testing in primary schools. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

National tests for primary school pupils will be backed by the government’s curriculum review but it is likely to call for an end to a policy introduced by Michael Gove for students taking GCSEs, the head of the review has suggested.

Prof Becky Francis, the chair of the curriculum and assessment review, said its interim findings would be released “exceedingly soon”, and that England’s education system was performing well despite the strains caused by the Covid pandemic.