Parents fear cheating as 11-plus paper is used again

Children taking the 11-plus exam late in parts of London have been given the same paper as pupils who sat the exam on time.

Parents are furious and fear children taking the exam late have an unfair advantage if questions are shared online. Seven councils, including Bexley, admitted re-using test papers when questioned by Exaro, the investigative website.

Children take later sittings if they have just moved to the area or were unable to take the original exam because of illness or injury.

Redbridge council last year changed its testing system after figures suggested that using the same paper gave pupils in a later sitting an advantage. Fourteen per cent of pupils who sat the paper on the first day were successful, compared with 29 per cent the following day.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Re-using exam papers is very poor practice. For national exams, such as GCSEs and A-levels, this would simply not be allowed.”

A spokeswoman for Bexley said: “The only way they would find out the questions is if another child tells them. To do that they would have to remember 50 maths questions or 75 verbal-reasoning questions in detail. There is no evidence of a higher success rate for children sitting the tests late.”

But parents say that examples of 11-plus questions from the September paper are being circulated among private tutors. A spokeswoman for the council said using the same papers makes assessment fairer.