Strike threat over tests for four-year-olds

TEACHERS are preparing to take industrial action in protest at “immoral” exams for four-year-olds.

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) have called for a major campaign against the “damaging” literacy and numeracy checks for children at the start of reception.

The union seeks to disrupt voluntary pilots of the tests next year, including the possibility of industrial action.

“Baseline” checks for reception-age children in England were announced last year by Justine Greening, the former education secretary.

At the NUT conference in Brighton, teachers raised concerns about the checks, arguing that they mean children are told they are “not good enough” within weeks of starting school.

Proposing the motion, Katharine Lindenberg, a delegate from Waltham Forest, London, said: “Baseline tests are unnecessary, they are pointless, they are expensive and above all they are damaging, and they are immoral.”

The NUT passed a resolution to call for “a major campaign aimed at encouraging schools not to take part in the pilot of baseline assessment in Sept 2019, using industrial action if necessary”.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We trust teachers to administer tests in a way that does not put undue pressure on pupils.” ♦children as young as four are becoming violent “six or seven times a day”, spitting at and trying to choke and gouge the eyes of teachers and pupils. Teachers told the NASUWT conference in Birmingham how the behaviour was causing anxiety among staff, who feared being hurt.