Legal action threat over SATs boycott

MINISTERS are threatening legal action to prevent a boycott of next month’s national tests for 11-year-olds.

They are talking to lawyers after two teaching unions confirmed yesterday that they will go ahead with the industrial action.

Members of the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers said the tests were bad for education and lead to schools being pilloried in league tables. The tests are due to be taken by 2,981 children in Oldham in the week after the May 6 general election, but schools would open as normal.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls branded the move “extremely disappointing” and said that head teachers had a statutory duty to administer the tests.