Primaries warned over effect of exams boycott

Sats results are an "important part of the information on which Ofsted makes judgments", he said after a conference of the National Association of Head Teachers yesterday

Both the association and the National Union of Teachers, which together represent around 80 per cent of primary school heads, announced last month the boycott would go ahead after ballots of their leadership members showed support.

National Curriculum tests (known as Sats) in English and maths are due to be taken by 600,000 11-year-olds in the week beginning May 10 – on what is expected to be the first day of office for a new Government.

At the association's annual conference in Liverpool, Mr Balls urged members not to take part and said: "Ofsted inspections will inevitably be affected."

He added: "It is for Ofsted to work out how to deal with the consequences in the minority of schools that don't do the tests."

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert "has been on record about the importance of the external moderated nature of this", Mr Balls said.

Sats results are used to assess how well a primary school is doing and the data is used by inspectors when coming to a judgment on schools.

Following recent changes to inspections, more weight is now placed on pupils' attainment, which could mean a lack of results has a negative impact on a school's rating.

NUT general secretary Christine Blower has suggested half of primaries in England will take part in the boycott. There are around 17,000 primary schools in England.

Mr Balls said he knew many heads felt passionately about the testing system, but parents and children needed to know how their school was performing.