Heads and teachers to vote on SATS boycott

Head teachers and teachers are considering a boycott of next year's SATS tests.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT)and National Union of Teachers (NUT) will debate identical resolutions at their conferences calling for a boycott of the Key Stage 1 and 2 tests in 2010.
Both organisations have agreed that if the tests continue beyond 2009, it will damage children's education.
Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT, said, "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 bsis by the publication of league tables."
The NUT's Christine Blower said "Primary schools' patience in enduring the damage caused by the tests has been stretched to the limit and beyond." She said it was unjust that primary schools have to continue with the tests the Government has decided to drop in secondary schools.