THE schools minister has been forced to cancel a national spelling test for England’s primary schools, after a teacher spotted it had already been published online as a practice paper.
Nick Gibb said this was a "clearly regrettable incident" reports the BBC.
More than half a million seven-year-olds had been due to take the test next month, as part of their Sat tests.
Head teachers’ leaders, who had called for the scrapping of the test, welcomed the decision.
It follows the discovery that part of the English test paper had been mistakenly published on the Department for Education’s website, for use as practice material, and had been available there for three months – potentially giving some pupils a clear advantage.
The blunder was initially spotted by a teacher at a school that was carrying out an official trial of the test, using the paper that was to be taken by pupils around England.
