Hundreds of 11-year-olds in Oxfordshire have still not got their full school test results as the controversial Key Stage 2 marks were branded a mess by headteachers.
Fifteen primary schools in the county, including three in Oxford, are still waiting for some tests - which assess how well pupils are performing in English, maths and science - to be marked.
ETS Europe, a US-owned firm hired by the Government, has been criticised for its handling of the marking.
Headteachers say results should not have been released until all tests were marked.
South Moreton Primary School head Keith Eaton, who retired at the end of the summer term, said his pupils were yet to receive their English marks.
He said: "I don't see how they can publish figures and produce statistics when they haven't got all the results.
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"They're giving the impression everything is all right and it's all sorted, but it isn't. It's very annoying that they can cock up a system which seemed to be working so well with no apology. It's an absolute mess."
Although ETS said there was no evidence of widespread problems with the quality of marking, teachers said they expected thousands of appeals to be lodged.
Judith Tinsley, head of Deddington Primary School, said: "They have definitely jumped the gun in releasing these figures.
"Although we were one of the fortunate schools, in that our papers were back with us early, we have concerns about the writing papers."
She found misspellings marked correct, and correct spellings labelled as errors.
She said: "We're very disappointed with the results.
"Children we were predicting to get good level fours were coming out with level threes and I'm sure some schools must be sending back whole batches of papers."
The percentage of Oxfordshire pupils achieving the expected level four in English and maths combined rose from 72 to 73 per cent.
Girls continued to outperform boys, with 75 per cent achieving level four in both subjects compared with 71 per cent of boys. The gap between the genders was two per cent up on last year.
Taking English and science together, the overall number of pupils reaching level four or above fell and those reaching levels five or above, was down in all areas apart from boys' maths.
Compared with national results, the county's 11-year-olds performed in line with the average, with girls above average in English, boys above average in maths and both genders slightly below average in science.
Paula Tansley, head of the county council's raising achievement service, said: "The council is determined to see big improvements in results in coming years."
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