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The quality of science lessons in schools is more enjoyable and innovative since national tests in the subject were scrapped, according to Ofsted.
Teachers are no longer required to prepare pupils to pass the exams, which were taken by 11 and 14 year olds.
A new Ofsted report on science at schools and colleges in England concluded that there had been "considerable innovation" in science teaching between 2007 and 2010.
It said the scrapping of national tests in science had made lessons more enjoyable and freed teachers to "to be innovative in planning their teaching and in enriching the science curriculum".
Inspectors looked at science teaching in nearly 200 schools and colleges in England, looking at inspection reports from 2007 to 2010.
The 'Successful Science' report found there is now a wider range of science courses for 14- to 16-year-olds, including the option to take three separate sciences.
In 2010 about 12,000 more A* and A grades at GCSE were awarded to students than in 2009 in each of the three separate sciences, an increase of 24 per cent.
It concluded that overall teaching of science had improved at both primary and secondary school level, with achievement in the subject being either good or outstanding in just over two thirds of the schools visited.
However it said there is a need for further improvement, that in primary schools a "lack of specialist expertise limited the challenge for some more able pupils".
Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: "It is important that teachers who still lack confidence in scientific inquiry are supported with sufficient professional development to improve their subject knowledge."
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) both welcomed the report from the schools watchdog.
NUT general secretary Christine Blower said that Ofsted makes it "quite clear that removing statutory tests in science at Key Stage 2 and 3 has actually improved science teaching".
She added: "This report highlights yet again the case NUT has been making for getting rid of Key Stage 2 tests in English and maths."
NAHT general secretary Russell Hobby said: "It's also gratifying to see Ofsted's acknowledgement in the report that the tests at Key Stage 2 and 3 had been stifling school science."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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