CHILDREN at a Poole school must wait months for their test results after the papers came back unmarked.

The Year 6 at Talbot Combined School took the national SATS tests in May and the school was aware the results were going to be released late.

Teacher Janice Anderton said: "We were supposed to get the papers back on July 8 then we were told it would be July 15.

"The papers have arrived but when we opened the bundle we saw the maths papers had not been marked."

However, the English and science papers had been marked.

Miss Anderton said: "It is a shame because the children have been waiting for a long time.

"We are not going to get the results until September now. This means some children will have to go to their new schools without them. It's a shambles."

She added that the school usually analyses the results to see what aspects of teaching can be improved and that this will be delayed.

Alan Cox a spokesman from the National Assessment Agency said: "Difficulties with the new marker systems and a series of technical issues have caused delays to marking.

"One technical issue involves the tracking of scripts and some unmarked scripts have been returned to schools in error.

"These scripts are collected as a matter of urgency but, inevitably, marking is delayed as a result.

"We understand that such delays will inconvenience many schools, and we share their frustration and disappointment."

The government has launched an inquiry after ETS Europe, the company contracted to mark the papers, failed to get the marks back on time.