Dunces! MPs are left red-faced after failing mock English and maths tests… for pupils aged TEN

• Most of the 12 MPs failed the maths SAT – which 71 per cent of Year Sixes passed 
• Half missed the mark for spelling and grammar; 72 per cent of students passed 
• Labour’s Emma Hardy said results show tests are ‘harmful to students’

Pupils aged ten have outsmarted politicians brave enough to take part in mock SATs exams.

Under the same conditions faced by Year 6 pupils, 12 MPs and peers tested their knowledge of fronted adverbials and long division in mock English and maths papers yesterday.

With just ten minutes to complete each paper, candidates faced ten questions taken from this year’s SATs, testing their knowledge of multiplication and division.

Questions included dividing 1,672 by 21 without a calculator and identifying which words in short sentences were nouns, adverbs and synonyms.

With just ten minutes to complete each paper, candidates faced ten questions taken from this year’s SATs, testing their knowledge of multiplication and division

Labour MP Emma Hardy, who sat the paper yesterday, said: ‘It is important to do the SATs paper to put myself in the situation of a Year 6 pupil to experience the pressure they are under’. Just 44 per cent of the MPs passed the maths test

Just 44 per cent of the ‘Class of Westminster’ passed the maths test. And only 50 per cent achieved the expected standard in spelling, punctuation and grammar required by the Department for Education.

The results are in stark contrast to those of Year 6 students who sat the exams this summer, with 72 per cent passing the English paper and 71 per cent the maths.

The experiment was organised by the campaign group, More Than A Score. Labour MP Emma Hardy, who sat the paper yesterday, said: ‘It is important to do the SATs paper to put myself in the situation of a Year 6 pupil to experience the pressure they are under.

‘It’s definitely time to review the way primary school children are assessed and primary schools are measured. Testing children under exam conditions in a narrow range of subjects doesn’t always support children’s learning, can often harm their wellbeing and isn’t the best way to give a full picture of how well a school is performing.’

Among others tested in Westminster were Caroline Ansell MP, Robin Walker MP, Flick Drummond MP and Baroness Christine Blower.

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