Afternoon:
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Gordon Brown mounted a strong defence of primary school testing today as teachers stepped up the campaign to abolish Sats.
The Prime Minister warned he would not tolerate "excuses" from schools that fail to give every child the best possible education.
National Sats in English and maths are as important to raising standards as GCSEs and A-levels, Mr Brown claimed.
His remarks pitted him against a movement for the abolition of Sats in primary schools.
The two biggest unions representing teachers and heads are preparing to escalate plans for a boycott next year.
Academics and children's authors have also called for the assessments to be scrapped.
But writing in the Times Educational Supplement, Mr Brown said there was a need to retain clear accountability through testing. "This means at the end of primary school just as much as at the end of secondary," he said.
Mr Brown warned that while Labour would "protect" education funding, schools were "not immune" from the need to improve efficiency in the recession.
