A primary school Sats paper that reduced some pupils to tears included texts on a giant bat colony, which was adapted from a New York Times article, a camping trip featuring sheep rustlers and a boy on a remote Scottish island who hears a wolf.
The 12-page reading test, featuring three substantial texts followed by 38 questions to be answered in an hour, was published on Thursday, once the assessment window had closed.
The paper, which was sat last week by 10- and 11-year-old pupils in year 6 in England, was widely criticised by teachers and parents, who complained it was too difficult. Even children who excelled in practice papers were unable to finish.
The paper was originally due to be released on Monday but was brought forward to Thursday “due to public interest”.
“Utterly miserable, scary and quite middle class” was the verdict of Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, the headteacher of Anderton Park primary school in Birmingham.
