SCHOOLS across Gwent are due to receive test results this week in English and maths from exams sat earlier this year by pupils from Years Two to Nine.

Yesterday education minister Huw Lewis AM announced that the results more than a million test papers had been collated and are being analysed in order to put primary schools into bands, similar to those currently used for secondary schools.

The Argus reported in May this year that the whole banding system is under review.

Wales’ regional consortia, including the South East Wales Education Achievement Service (EAS), monitored the execution of the tests, with the numerical reasoning exam sat for the first time this year.

But teaching unions were critical of the way the tests were distributed and timed, namely around the same time as other exams such as GCSEs.

The education minister said yesterday: “It is vitally important that schools use the results from the tests as a means of informing their teaching and learning to continuously improve practice in the classroom.”

He described it as a complex process “that has never been undertaken on this scale”.

Owen Hathway, policy officer for the Welsh arm of the National Union of Teachers said feedback from members — namely teachers — about the tests has “not been positive”.