Sorry I missed the chat!
Just to clarify - Micahel is wrong about KS1 SATs, but he did ask us to correct him if he was [smile}.
In 2005, SATs stopped being the level reported at the end of Y2, and instead we were allowed to report the teacher assessment. The teacher assessment has to be drawn from many sources of evidence, a small part of which is still the tests. Schools don't have a choice in this.
Teachers loved this idea - previously we were sending up children to Y3 as levels based one piece of flimsy evidence, a test. (And never mind how the poor six/seven year old performed in class on a day to day basis).
Because the teacher assessment has to be built up, and looks at the whole picture of the child, most schools downplay these tests, and don't put any pressure in the Y2 children at all. Indeed, some LEAs refuse to look at the tests as part of the overall evidence when moderating teacher assessments and checking judgements.
However, there are some schools who still insist on drilling 6/7 year olds and boring them to death with past papers - this is terrible practice, and the 2005 changes should have eradicated this approach. See here for government advice on the changes.
Hope this clears things up