Headteachers claim 'play' is just a four-letter word

The National Association of Head Teachers warned that schools were too concerned with league tables and tests - which were 'humiliating' children.

School league tables based on test and exam results fuel truancy rates and breed unhappiness among children who are branded "failures", the union warned.

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NAHT general secretary Mick Brookes urged ministers to reform the "high stakes" system of tests and league tables in England.

Speaking at the union's annual conference in Bournemouth, he said: "It is high time that those in power began to heed the message.

"The weight of evidence against the current system is growing.

"We would like to work with the Government to map a more meaningful assessment system that avoids the dangers so clearly outlined by the NAHT and others."

The union has set up its own inquiry into testing and league tables after raising concerns over the high profile tests for 11-year-olds in maths, science and English.

Sue Palmer, a former primary school headteacher and author of Toxic Childhood, said the testing system meant "children have been reduced to widgets".

She continued: "The tests on which the nation places its faith are the outcome of reductionism, guesswork, assumption and nudges.

"It shames me as a teacher that I've lived through such rubbish for 35 years.

"There's a contrast between what education is about and what's being tested.

"At primary level, it should be about the three Rs, socialising and getting them to love learning - producing independent learners who think for themselves.

"'Play' has become a four-letter word. Learning through doing isn't valued. They're being taught to tick boxes."

The union warned that high pressure tests for 11-year-olds and GCSEs "humiliate" large numbers of children and brand them and their communities as failures.

This contributed to an "exodus" of young people from school aged 16, poor attendance rates, and the low ranking of the UK in a recent Unicef report rating levels of children's well-being in developed countries, the NAHT said.