An alternative primary assessment system - with Sats scrapped in favour of a sample of pupils tested at the end of Year 6 - has been put forward by the campaign group More than a Score.
The group, which represents 17 organisations, including the NUT, also proposes that a wider range of subjects than maths and English could be monitored through national sampling.
They argue that the current system of testing every child to judge schools is “deeply flawed” because it narrows the curriculum and creates stress for pupils and teachers.
Its alternative system, which is due to be launched at an event in Westminster this evening, says that teachers should choose how to assess pupils in class and that parents should have meaningful reports on their children’s progress - but that the national monitoring of standards should involve testing only a sample of children, as happens currently for primary science.
“Our current system of primary assessment is in urgent need of reform,” Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the NUT, said. “In summer 2016, nearly half the 11-year-olds in the country were told they weren’t ready for secondary school.
“That wasn’t true - but it was deeply damaging. It’s a peculiarity of the English system that, despite the number of tests children face, none of them test how well the government is doing at supporting learning. Testing random samples of pupils - random so the children won’t be crammed - will give a much truer picture of our education system.”
Nancy Stewart, of TACTYC, an association for early years training, said teachers’ assessment of what children could do was crucial, but different from external testing. “Good gardeners provide young plants with attentive care and the best conditions for growth; they do not keep pulling them up to measure their roots,” she added.
The report comes in contrast to recommendations from the NAHT headteachers’ union earlier this year, which backed the continuation of externally set and marked tests in reading and maths, as well as teacher assessment for writing, at the end of key stage 2 - although it called for the end of key stage 1 tests.
The chaos surrounding the introduction of new primary tests last year led to the NAHT, ATL and NUT unions all warning of a potential boycott of Sats unless changes were made.
Their concerns included a reading test that left children in tears and wide variations between how local authorities assessed writing. The DfE also set up an inquiry to look into how two test papers were leaked during 2016.
But potential boycott action was averted after the government agreed that it would review primary assessment, with a consulation due this year.
