STOP HARMFUL SCHOOL TESTS

Line of Duty's Anna says kids' confidence 'broken'

- LUCY THORNTON

ANNA Maxwell Martin today joins parents in calling for controversial Sats tests for kids with special educational needs to be scrapped.

The Line of Duty star, 48, branded navigating the broken system with her own two children a “gauntlet of horror”.

She has signed an open letter, along with 22 parent groups, warning the Education Secretary that the current tests “actively harm” children who struggle though no fault of their own.

The letter states the large proportion of Sends youngsters who fail their Sats - Standard Assessment Tests - “spend their entire Year 6 convinced they are not clever enough”.

It adds: “They feel they don't belong. They try harder every day, but the odds are so stacked against them that the weight of it all eventually breaks them.”