New national tests for schoolchildren in Northern Ireland

In around 2030, children in Northern Ireland will start taking new national tests in reading, maths, and science.

The Department of Education say the tests will help teachers and parents to see how children are doing in these important subjects.

Children in P4 of primary school will take the new online tests in reading and maths.

When they reach P7, they'll take the tests in reading, maths and science - and they'll take these same three tests again in year 10 of secondary school.

The new tests will mean that all children in P4, P7 and Year 10 will take the same tests as each other, no matter which school they go to.

The Department for Education said that the new tests will also mean that children sit less exams set by their own schools.

Speaking about the new tests, Paul Givan, who is the Minister of Education in Northern Ireland said: "They'll be short in length, some only 20 minutes, carried out once a year."

He added: "There's no revision, there's no preparation to be carried out."

The Department of Education say the new tests will also help teachers to spot if a child needs extra support in a subject so that they can be given help to improve.

Nicola Connery, who is the principal of Strathearn School in Belfast said: "This external data will give us a little bit more information to do that."

Garry Matthewson, who is one of the report's panel members, explained that the changes will help to provide a record how children are doing in school as they grow up.

He said the new testing system would make it "easy" for a child's next school (their secondary school) to understand how they've been getting on.