Sats should be scrapped and league tables suspended in the event of a widespread coronavirus outbreak, school leaders have said.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) is calling for accountability measures to be put on hold if large swathes of primary school children are unable to sit this year’s Sats tests due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking on the BBC Today Programme this morning, Geoff Barton, ASCL general secretary, said: “You’re not going to be able to judge School A against School B if School B happens to be closed anyway. 

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“So instead let’s allow teachers to focus on the most important thing, which is to get resources together to keep those children learning whether they are at home or whether they’re in a different school.”

An ASCL spokesperson told Tes: “If a scenario unfolds in which those tests are highly disrupted, we would say: ‘Let’s not go ahead with them this year’.

“It wouldn’t make sense to continue to have that as a performance measure this year.”

Last week, Ofqual said it was “working closely” with awarding organisations and the Department for Education to prepare for potential exam disruption in the event of a major coronavirus outbreak.

The regulator told Tes that trying to “put a label” on the situation is difficult as “so much has happened so fast”, but the smooth running of exams could be affected if a percentage of pupils are not able to sit the tests.