TORY Schools Minister Nick Gibb finally bowed to mounting pressure today and promised to “look at” a Sats exam paper that was so difficult, it allegedly left some Year 6 pupils in tears.

Mr Gibb said he did not want assessments taken by 10 and 11-year-olds in England to be “too hard, as that is not their purpose.”

However, the Department for Education insisted last Friday that Sats, which are used to measure children’s English and maths skills in Year 2 and Year 6 and consist of six 45-minute papers, were “designed to be challenging.”

Hundreds of parents complained online that last week’s reading exam was too difficult, while head teachers’ unions reported that even some staff had struggled to understand the questions.

When asked about the concerns, Mr Gibb said: “I’ve not seen the paper yet — I’ll look at it next week, when it’s available.

“The Standards and Testing Agency tested this test last year with a large group of children and they monitored their response to the questions — they found that 85 per cent enjoyed taking it.

“But I will certainly look at this because I know that there has been concern expressed by some schools.”

School leaders’ union NAHT confirmed that it planned to raise the issue with both the agency and exams regulator Ofqual. 

Assistant general secretary James Bowen said: “We are pleased that the government will be looking at what happened with the reading test. 

“We have had clear feedback from school leaders that this year’s paper was not pitched appropriately for a large proportion of pupils and even highly proficient readers struggled with it.

“It is essential that test papers are accessible for the large majority of pupils. The last thing we need are papers that leave them feeling demotivated and dejected.”

Geoff Barton, head of fellow school leaders’ union ASCL, said: “We welcome Nick Gibb’s commitment to look at the concerns raised. 

“We’ve received a lot of feedback that this paper was unnecessarily difficult and that it left children distressed and teachers very anxious about the impact on their pupils.

“Tests are not supposed to be some sort of gruelling rite of passage, but an accountability measure to check on attainment.”