600,000 children took the English test

Head teachers have criticised the national test in English, taken by 600,000 children in England on Wednesday.

One mother told BBC News Online her daughter had cried during the test and had asked her whether tear-stains on the paper would affect her results.

The exams watchdog, the QCA, says all kinds of subject matter have the potential to upset some pupils, but care is taken over the choice of material.

Tear-stains

Hampshire parent Lynn Painter said her 10 year old daughter and another girl had been crying during the test.

"She came out of school and said the story-line in the test had upset her, and asked whether tear-stains on the page would affect her results.

"The teachers and parents try to keep the children calm over these tests and then subject matter is chosen which puts children under unnecessary extra stress.

"There are so many other topic areas which could have been chosen without having an impact on their emotions."

It is skating on thin ice. It has the potential to upset children in what is already an emotional situation Chris Davis, National Primary Heads Association

In the test, children had to read a story about a girl whose grandfather has had a stroke and has "shaky legs and quivering muscles".

They are asked to comment on the girl's feelings when her grandfather came out of hospital.

In the paragraph they are asked to refer to, the girl talks about how her grandfather is very different from before and how he sat "slumped in his chair by the fire most of the day, his eyes were vague and sometimes he dribbled his food, just like a baby".

Chris Davis, the head teacher of Queniborough Primary School near Leicester, is spokesman for the National Primary Heads' Association.

He said: "It is skating on thin ice. It has the potential to upset children in what is already an emotional situation and this would not give them a fair chance."

Teachers upset

John Illingworth, the head teacher of Bentinck Primary School in Nottinghamshire and a former president of the National Union of Teachers, said the paper showed how flawed Sats tests were.

"If you get a paper talking about the death of a grandfather, among the hundreds of thousands taking the test will be some whose grandfathers have died recently and this is bound to have an effect on them," he said.

"The problem with Sats tests is that they are a test of a child on one day. If they are upset on that day, for whatever reason, it could affect their results."

Head teachers have said such subject matter could be covered in a sensitive manner by teachers talking it over with the children.

At one Leicestershire school, a teacher was upset by the story herself because of her own experiences.

Her head teacher told BBC News Online: "She told me she was quite teary reading the story.

There will inevitably be a small number of cases where a recent experience may make the subject matter more sensitive QCA

"The subject matter was not something I would give to year six children cold. You would want to discuss the issues raised sensitively," she said.

Another head teacher, Jo Plaskitt from Carrington Junior School in Buckinghamshire, said her pupils were not very bothered by the storyline, although she felt uncomfortable with it because of the graphic desciption of a stroke.

"They were not perturbed or affected but they felt uncomfortable with it," she said.

"But I felt it was a little graphic for children with no experience of a stroke. The story seemed to be about an adult world."

"This task, like all other national curriculum test materials, was developed in conjunction with groups of teachers and trialled in schools. A spokesman for the exams watchdog, the QCA, said: "With any test that is sat by 600,000 children, there will inevitably be a small number of cases where a recent experience may make the subject matter more sensitive.