English children "most tested"

Primary school children in England are tested more heavily than most other developed countries.

A ‘testing culture’ means pupils face more testing, in more subjects, from an earlier age, a report by the Cambridge-based Primary Review found.

Comparisons were made with 22 other countries, including the Netherlands, France and Japan.

Children who start school early were also discovered to be at a disadvantage.

Those beginning at the age of four sometimes found the experience stressful. They performed less well all the way through education, and achieved lower grades at GCSE.

Primary schools in England were also found to be larger than in other countries, with an average of 224 pupils.

The Structure and Content of English Primary Education: international perspectives

Scotland beats England on education

Quality of life for Scotland’s children has been ranked among the lowest in an international league table. Scotland came near the bottom in almost every category, particularly for child poverty.

But in education Scotland fared better. It was ranked eighth out of the 31, with the UK in 11^th place.

Children’s charity Barnardo’s Scotland were behind the report, which compares Scotland with 31 other countries worldwide, and have now called on First Minister Alex Salmond to improve life for Scotland’s children.

The director of Barnardo’s Scotland, Martin Crewe, said: “This report highlights that urgent action needs to be taken to improve the wellbeing of children in Scotland.

“We need long-term investment in children’s futures, particularly in the development of preventative services.

“We need to learn the lessons from the relatively good performance in education and use that to improve outcomes for children in other areas.”

Index of Wellbeing report