EDUCATION bosses are investigating after an exam supplied to a primary pupil with special educational needs (SEN) contained "a catalogue of inaccuracies".

Chloe Fry, 11, who is visually impaired, still passed her SATs with flying colours despite the botched paper, which had been specially adapted at Cotford St Luke Primary School to make the print large enough for her to read.

Her mother, Sharon, claims the test contained:

  • a question asking the value of a square that wasn't shown;
  • five questions referring to a non-existent diagram;
  • 11 questions with blurred writing;
  • font size on the reading paper too small;
  • the numbering on one test was 10, 11, 9, 10, 14.

In addition, marks were incorrectly not awarded for four questions.

Somerset County Gazette:

It's impossible to calculate the value of the square - a circle was incorrectly put in the question instead of a square.

Mrs Fry said the Department for Education only modifies SATs papers up to a certain size that is too small for Chloe.

Instead, the school was sent a hard copy of the test which it had to edit itself.

"That resulted in a catalogue of inaccuracies which made the majority of the test inaccessible to Chloe," said Mrs Fry.

"Something needs to be done to change the process when it comes to schools modifying test papers.

"Quite clearly the current system is a complete let down to children with SEN.

"It is total discrimination in my eyes. Chloe had no chance to be tested fairly."

She added: "I'm pursuing a complaint with the school, but my overriding feeling is still that all this could've been avoided if the papers were supplied in the right size or an editable format to start with.

"I'm determined not to allow the education system to restrict my daughter's learning potential and personal development by these kinds of bureaucratic and archaic processes."

Acting head teacher Adrian Jones - who was not in charge at the time of the tests - said the school had "only a short time" to modify the papers they received.

He added: "As always, the school strives to do its best for each individual child, which also meant that Chloe was allowed additional time and one-to-one support for her SATs.

"Whilst Chloe did well in her SATs and passed them all, some mistakes on the papers have been made which we're looking into.

"It's certainly not down to a lack of effort on the part of the school, but once again does highlight the pressures of SATs on both children and adults."

A DfE spokesperson said: "Schools must take responsibility for ensuring that any modifications they make to test papers are accurate.

"The Standards and Testing Agency provides modified versions of the SATs tests to support pupils with a visual impairment.

"However, if the modified versions of the tests do not meet a pupil’s specific needs, schools can modify these further.

"Schools can also seek advice from their local authority about services available to help with complex modifications of test scripts."