# The Testing in Primary Schools (Scotland) Regulations 1990, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations require education authorities to test the level of certain aspects of the educational attainment of primary school pupils, who are attending schools under their management and who are at certain stages in their primary education.
Regulation 3(1) provides the general rule that every education authority shall test the level of educational attainment of all primary school pupils who are in their fourth and seventh years of primary education (“P4” and “P7”, respectively) in schools under their management: in respect of language (which in all schools, other than those where Gaelic is a language of instruction, means the English language) and mathematics where the pupil is in P4; and, in respect of the English language and mathematics, where the pupil is in P7.
Regulation 3(2) provides that where Gaelic is a language of instruction at a school, attainment tests in language in respect of P4 pupils may be in respect of the English or the Gaelic language, or both, as the education authority may consider appropriate.
Regulation 3(3) makes an exception to the general rule of regulation 3(1) in respect of pupils with special educational needs who have a Record of Needs: attainment testing in respect of such pupils is to be carried out only where the education authority consider that appropriate, following consultation with a parent of the pupil.
Regulation 3(4) also qualifies regulation 3(1) in that it provides that where a pupil is in attendance at a school where Gaelic is a language of instruction, the duty of the education authority under regulation 3(1) to hold attainment tests applies, for the purposes of the school year in which these Regulations come into force, only in respect of pupils in P7 and insofar as the tests relate to those pupils' level of educational attainment in the English language.
Regulation 3(5) provides that, for the purpose of holding attainment tests, an education authority shall select, from the range of materials prepared by the Scottish Examination Board for that purpose, such materials as appear to the authority appropriate to the level of education and circumstances of the pupils whose level of educational attainment is to be tested. The authority are required to do so by 17th December in the first school year in which the Regulations come into force and by 15th November in all subsequent such years. An education authority are also required, when holding attainment tests, to use such materials as they have selected in accordance with regulation 3(5) and different such materials may be used by the authority for testing the educational attainment of different pupils or groups of pupils.
Regulation 3(6) requires an education authority to hold attainment tests at each of their primary schools, within the period from 1st March to 30th April in each school year, and gives the authority discretion to hold such tests at different times within that period in respect of: a particular school; a class at a school; or a pupil or group of pupils in any such class.
Regulation 3(7) provides that, (without prejudice to the requirement that the level of educational attainment of all pupils in P7 be tested in respect of the English language), where an education authority hold attainment tests at one of their schools, where Gaelic is a language of instruction at that school, they may select, in accordance with paragraph (5)(a), test materials prepared by the Scottish Examination Board which are in Gaelic. It is further provided that in those circumstances an education authority may use such materials for testing the level of educational attainment of a pupil in language or mathematics and, in respect of that pupil, they may also use test materials, prepared by the Board, which are in English.
Regulation 4 provides that an education authority shall ensure that attainment tests held at one of their schools are marked, in respect of each pupil whose level of educational attainment has been tested, by no later than the end of the school year in which those tests were held.
Regulation 5(1) requires an education authority to provide the Scottish Examination Board with such information as the Board may request in respect of the results of attainment tests held at their schools and with samples of completed and marked attainment test papers. Regulation 5(2) requires an education authority, after holding attainment tests in any school year at a school under their management, to ensure that, by the end of that school year: a parent of each pupil who has undertaken such a test is supplied with that pupil’s results; and, that the school board of the school is provided with a summary of the results of the tests, so far as possible without identifying the results of any individual pupil.
Regulation 6 amends regulation 10(1)(d) of the Schools General (Scotland) Regulations 1975, so as to require an education authority to record in a pupil’s progress record (which record the authority are obliged to keep by virtue of that provision) the results of any attainment tests administered to that pupil.
“Primary school” is defined for the purposes of these Regulations so as to include a primary department in a school which provides both primary and secondary education (regulation 2(1)).
Regulations 3(7) and 5(2) come into force on 1st August 1991, whereas all other provisions of these Regulations come into force on 17th November 1990.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1990/2104/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/testing-in-primary-schools-scotland-regulations-1990/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.