National Union of Teachers conference backs moves to oppose baseline assessment saying it will put pressure on pupils.
Teachers have denounced plans to introduce a national assessment for four- and five-year-olds at the start of formal schooling claiming that it would damage pupils, force schools into competition and distort teaching at a crucial stage.
The National Union of Teachers annual conference resoundingly backed moves to oppose the baseline assessment that the Department for Education is proposing for children in England at the start of reception year.
The motion on early years and primary assessment argued that the tests were "devised to entrench a system of league tables that sets schools in competition with each other", while an amendment called for "the possibility of a mass campaign of principled non-compliance" in response.
Speakers argued that children in early years education – from the ages of three until seven – learn better through the use of informal play and would be harmed by the early imposition of formal teaching.
Stephane Bernard, a teacher from of Lambeth, told the conference that she was "shocked, outraged, horrified and angry" to hear about the plans for more testing.
"What our four- and five-year-olds need is not another barrage of tests but emphasis on the child's personal, social and emotional development, communication and language skills. They need nurturing and their physical skills developing. All these things are key," Bernard said.
Veronica Peppiatt, a member of the NUT executive, said that carrying out standarised tests on children as young as four years old was fraught with difficulty. "They just will not produce valid results. And we do all know what those invalid results are to be used for, don't we? Performance-related pay," said Peppiatt.
Under the early years curriculum currently in force, teachers in England already assess their pupils' abilities in reception classes, but the data is not collected centrally.
The aim of the proposed baseline assessment is not to test children but to gauge their abilities at the start of schooling and allow a better measure of progress. But the NUT says the assessment would inevitably become a focus for parents and teachers, and interrupt a child's transition to full-time schooling at a critical time.
The tests would be carried out in the first few weeks of the new school year and focus on basic counting, letter and number recognition. The DfE has not yet announced what form the assessment would take.
Several speakers said that the union should examine the DfE's final proposals and consider further action next year, including the possibility of boycotting the tests when they come into force in 2016.
Christine Blower, the NUT's general secretary, said that an emphasis on formal learning and assessment would put undue pressure on a school's youngest pupils.
"Children and young people do not develop at the same rate and this approach takes no account of either summer-born children or those with special educational needs," Blower said.
"A play-based curriculum is what is needed – not unnecessary tests, which children in their earliest years of education might 'fail', giving them a negative message in the earliest years of schooling."
The Department for Education said: "Schools will be held to account either for ensuring all children make sufficient progress from reception to the end of primary school, or for ensuring at least 85% achieve the expected level in reading, writing and maths.
"We want to see all children leaving primary school with a good standard of reading, writing and maths so that they can thrive at secondary school."
A motion approved by the conference also called for "an alliance of forces" to oppose and boycott the phonics check, a reading and literacy assessment applied to pupils in England at the end of year one.
"Just teaching a child to mindlessly repeat the sound of words is buh-uh-ol-ocks," Nicola Nugent, a teacher from Hackney who introduced the motion, told delegates, joking with phonemes in the manner taught to pupils in early years.
Meanwhile, the NASUWT teachers' conference in Birmingham heard that teachers in some schools were having to share toilet facilities with pupils.
"There are some schools around the country where staff and pupils have to use the same toilets, queuing up with pupils waiting for the next available toilet," Wayne Broom, a teacher from Middlesbrough, said during a debate on the erosion of health and safety provisions in schools.
"In this day and age what problems and accusations could this lead to from pupils? We need to protect the child and the staff."
The NASUWT motion protested the repeal of the School Premises Regulations Act, reclassifying schools as low-risk environments.
"Since coming to office, the coalition government has continually trivialised the importance of health and safety, claiming that it has imposed unnecessary bureaucratic burdens on schools," said Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT.
