Primary school 'boot camps' warning

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Hundreds of thousands of 10 and 11-year-olds are being prepared for their national curriculum Key Stage 2 - or "Sats" - tests in English, science and maths next month.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the 160,000-member Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said the final year of primary school is now dominated by the pressure to do well in these tests.

She told the union's annual conference in Bournemouth: "This is not education, this is training - and the consequences are catastrophic.

"They lead to a period of exhaustion, not only for the teacher, but also for the pupils, who are route-marched through to Level 4 (the standard expected of 11-year-olds). We know that real learning does not take place in boot camp Year 6 classes."

In an unflattering end of term report for the Prime Minister, Dr Bousted attacked Tony Blair's "pick and mix" approach to state education.

She said Mr Blair deserved praise for putting more money into education, but the Government's policies had bred a confusing array of new types of schools, which would do nothing to give choice to poor parents.

"The confusion surrounding types of school, and their relation with the community and with local democracy, extends to all the other areas of Government policy," she said.

"I think we need a new term to describe the current approach to policy making - I call it the 'pick and mix' approach. Through 'pick and mix' you can have any type of school you want, run any way you want - never mind the evidence that in such a diverse system the schools pick the children, rather than the other way round.

"The most disadvantaged, socially excluded children, those without the parents with the income to move house, or the knowledge to navigate the selection process, are left without choice and without access to the 'good' schools in which the social mix of the pupils would create greater opportunities for their success."