Twitter-happy parents told off for leaking SATS details

THE Government has warned parents not to discuss SATS questions on Twitter because pupils can take the tests at different times.

The Department for Education has warned parents and teachers who have complained about aspects of the tests online not to spoil the questions.

Although the tests are officially scheduled for this week, children who are ill on the day of a test can take it up to five school days later.

The Department for Education’s Twitter account, @educationgovuk, has been replying to tweets since Monday asking users to remove ones which include details about questions.

A post on its Facebook account read: “Please help us ensure the smooth administration of the tests by ensuring that test content is not discussed online and that all test materials remain secure until May 22 to allow children who are absent this week to take the tests next week using timetable variations.”

One of the messages, sent to Twitter user Matt Thrower, who complained about a maths question, read: “Hi, can you please remove the tweet referring to SATS? We’re trying to maintain the confidentiality & integrity of ongoing tests.”

Mr Thrower had not tweeted the department directly, but had used the hashtag #SATS2017.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “It’s just a polite reminder not to share those questions.

“Where the team has been asked about it or it has popped up in a feed, they have occasionally reminded someone directly.”

He added that the team was not “tracking people down”.

Several parents continued to discuss English and maths questions on social media yesterday.

The exams are currently taken by six to seven-yearolds in Year 2 and 10 to 11-year-olds in Year 6.

The Year 2 SATS are due to be scrapped after this year.