Teachers back campaign to scrap Sats exams in primary schools, union ballot suggests

National Education Union executive will now decide whether to hold formal vote on boycott of tests

Some teachers are supporting the union’s campaign to abolish Sats, ballot suggests (PA)

The vast majority of teachers want the government to scrap high-stakes primary school tests such as Sats, an indicative ballot of members at the UK’s largest education union suggests.

Some 97 per cent of members surveyed said they backed the National Education Union’s (NEU) campaign for an alternative to the exams, which are taken by children in Years 2 and 6.

The results of the indicative ballot, which surveyed 54,500 primary school members of the NEU, have been published on the day the government releases this year’s Sats results.

Earlier this year, delegates at the NEU annual conference backed plans for a possible boycott of next year's tests, which they argue are “educationally flawed” and “increase stress” for pupils.

It came in the same week both Labour and the Liberal Democrats announced that they would scrap Sats exams if in government.

Jeremy Corbyn told teachers at the conference the “regime of extreme pressure testing” would be abolished amid reports of children crying, vomiting and having nightmares.

The union said the results of the indicative ballot endorsed its campaign to end "damaging high-stakes tests” in primary schools.

The NEU added the survey sent a clear message to the government that the “current assessment system must change”.

The union’s executive will meet on Saturday to decide whether to move to a formal ballot of members on whether they should shun the Sats tests.

Sats could be cancelled in some schools if members voted in favour of a boycott in a formal ballot. However, headteachers could bring in substitute staff to oversee the exams.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, declared the ballot results demonstrated “resounding support” for significant change to assessment in primary schools, adding that Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party all have “major concerns about our SATs-dominated system”.

He said: “Government now needs to listen and to accept the need to change a culture in which too many classrooms are dominated by teaching to the test, at the expense of the learning and wellbeing of our children.”

Labour MP Angela Rayner, shadow education secretary, said: “These results should send the government a clear message that Sats aren’t working for teachers or pupils, and it’s about time they listened.”

Nick Gibb, the school standards minister, said: “The NEU’s indicative ballot does not even represent half their members, let alone the whole teaching profession.

“These tests have been part of school life since the 1990s and have been pivotal in raising standards in our primary schools.”

He added: “Abolishing these tests would be a terrible, retrograde step. It would enormously damage our education system, and undo decades of improvement in children’s reading and maths.”