Possible challenge to legality of SATs boycott

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Possible challenge to legality of SATs boycott

26 April 2010

Head teachers look set to boycott KS2 SATs for 10- and 11-year olds following a ballot by the NUT and NAHT.

Last week, the two unions confirmed that they would take industrial action against the tests, which pupils are due to sit in early May. Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT, has said that KS2 SATs are “misused to compile meaningless league tables which only serve to humiliate and demean children, their teachers and communities.” However, the National Governance Association (NGA), has questioned the legality of any boycott. Clare Collins, Chair of the NGA, has said that industrial action “must be related to teachers’ terms and conditions”, but that SATs are “a performance measure, not a matter of their terms and conditions”.

With head teachers and governors seemingly at loggerheads, it seems highly likely that there will be a legal challenge to a SATs boycott, meaning that the courts will have the final say on this issue.

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