INTERVIEW: Changes made at primary school where some SATs results were declared invalid

Mr Lewis said he was not happy with elements of what he had heard after a review by the school’s governors, but he said appropriate action has been taken and that there were no problems with this year’s tests.

Mr Lewis, who was not in the role when the tests were taken, said the administration of the English grammar, punctuation and spelling papers was “inappropriately handled,” but when pressed he would not go into more detail. The school was Peterborough’s top performing primary last year.

Mr Lewis said: “The governors have done a thorough review of the situation. They’ve looked at the situations that happened, they followed up with the individuals - things have changed this year.

“The action they took in terms of individuals was appropriate to the outcome of the work they did. That’s as far as I can go with what I can say. They were fully accountable to me. I wasn’t happy with some of what they picked up. We’ve agreed what they will change as a result of it.

“What we do need to remember is that’s a great school, it’s doing a great job. It’s had a really challenging past and it’s moved significantly far forward. We have a fantastic head teacher. He’s found this very challenging personally, but he’s dealt with it.”