Teachers and pupils had said the writing task was tedious

Typically 95% or so thought the tests adequate or better in terms of their suitability for various year groups.

But in the Year 6 longer writing task it was 50.5% - with 26.4% saying "fairly poor" and 23.1% "very poor".

The QCA regulator said some children struggled to compose a radio advert: they had no experience of radio.

The QCA - Qualifications and Curriculum Authority - has also accepted there have been problems with the marking of the English tests taken by 14 year olds, and is making changes.

Pictures

When the tests were taken, in May, there were complaints about the English writing task set for the 11 year olds.

It featured four cartoon-style pictures of children queuing outside a shop, entitled "The Queue".

Teachers - and pupils - panned it as boring and uninspiring, especially for brighter children: Who wants to be in a queue anyway?

The author Philip Pullman looked at it for the teachers' journal the Times Educational Supplement. He said: "It was very boring - a task of stupendous futility."

As part of its annual evaluation of all the tests, the QCA commissioned researchers at the University of Manchester to seek schools' opinions.

Their report says: "Over half the boys and girls were motivated by the test. The structured task was welcomed by the schools.

"However, some schools suggested the task was more helpful for the less able (use of a storyboard) providing them with a frame for writing and an opportunity to achieve and was restrictive (pictures limiting, poor graphics) for the most able dissuading them from any attempt at creativity."

The task's appropriateness rating for assessing children working at target levels 3, 4 and 5 decreased as the levels rose (level 3, 74%; level 4, 62% and level 5, 47%).

What's a radio?

In terms of children's "motivation and engagement", 44.6% of the respondents thought it was fairly or very poor for boys and 47.2% for girls.

The shorter writing task this year was to compose a radio advertisement.

The evaluation notes: "Some schools considered the subject matter appealing to children, clearly presented and an opportunity for children to use their imagination."

But it adds: "Some schools also reported that some children had no experience of this form (radio)."

Approval

Overall the tests were given a thumbs up.

In maths, for example, only 1.8% of schools thought the non-calculator test less than adequate for Year 6 pupils. In science it was about 4%.

The QCA said the evaluation of the tests "shows that the majority of teachers surveyed feel they are appropriate for assessing pupil performance, and are motivating and engaging for pupils."

It believes some of the complaint about the writing test might be because there was no choice of questions this year.

The pre-test piloting had not flagged up any problems. Children had been "engaged" and come up with "fairly lively" answers.

The researchers conducted their evaluation through a mixture of questionnaires and focus groups for the different subjects and ages.

Science proved a little troublesome, however.

"Science focus groups were replaced with telephone interviews with the agreement of the QCA, because of insufficient participants," their report said.

The QCA believes this may be because the tests are uncontroversial.

Changes to marking

In planning for next year, the QCA is changing the way the English tests for 14 year olds are marked, to "improve the accuracy of results" as well as streamline the process for teachers and markers.

Markers will simply mark the tests. No longer will they add up the marks and convert them into levels, which will be done by separate people.

A spokesman said this was in light of the number of requests for the marking to be reviewed, as part of a process of continuous improvement.

Only a small proportion of pupils have levels changed each year following a review - less than 1% last year.

He said the problem affected Key Stage 3 English in particular because "the level of sophistication of children's responses makes it so much of a challenge" - especially when the questions sought a "creative" answer.