Primary teachers could boycott Sats

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) say that continuing the tests beyond this year is "unacceptable".

At their annual conferences this spring, both unions will put to their members identical resolutions calling for a boycott.

Sats tests for 14-year-olds were scrapped by Schools Secretary Ed Balls in October following last summer's fiasco which saw more than a million children face a delay in getting their results. But there is widespread anger among heads and teachers that the tests, in English, maths and science, have not been abolished in primary schools.

Last month the NAHT and NUT held a joint conference calling for Sats tests for seven and 11-year-olds (Key Stages 1 and 2) and league tables to be scrapped. It said this year's exams, which are taken in May, should be voluntary and that standards in the three core subjects should be measured through teacher assessment.

The motion proposes: "Conference calls on the Executive/National Council to broaden the joint campaign to secure the end of a testing regime which is not fit for purpose."

If passed, it instructs the unions' executive or national council to step up the joint campaign to halt testing. It will say that the support of all unions, including the TUC, should be sought as well as the backing of a wide range of organisations, plus parents, school governors and MPs.

Once all other avenues have been explored, members should be balloted for joint action to boycott the tests, if the Government refuses to scrap them. The unions said the decision to consider a boycott for next year would give the Government a chance to make a transition to new assessment arrangements. A ballot on a boycott could go ahead during the autumn term this year.

NAHT general secretary Mick Brookes said: "Having made the educational and professional case for the abolition of assessment arrangements in Year 6, we have now imposed a timeline. We feel it is unconscionable that we should simply stand by and allow the educational experience of children to be blighted and for colleagues to be humiliated and demeaned on an annual basis by the publication of league tables."

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said that any attempt to boycott the tests would risk "removing a basic right" of parents to see how their children and local schools were performing.