A HAMPSHIRE head teacher has led calls for the abolition of exams for seven-year-olds.

Jenny Simpson head of Lymington CE Infant School told heads at their annual conference in York that compulsory tests for children at six and seven were "sick".

She told delegates that many children who took Key Stage 1 tests every year were actually six, as their birthdays were in August.

"We are testing very young children in the most offensive ways. In doing so, we are devaluing real learning and potentially creating the cause for children to be switched off school at the very moment when they should be immersed in it and enjoying every moment, at a time when they should be learning to learn.

"A system that is prepared to examine six and seven-year-olds to further its own political agenda is sick."

The National Association of Head Teachers has stepped up the pressure from the teaching profession on the government to slash the number of compulsory tests at its annual conference in York. The union is set to look into if boycotting national primary and secondary is legal.

But NAHT general secretary David Hart poured cold water on the likelihood of his union joining the National Union of Teachers in a national boycott because it was a "non-starter" under the law.

Larry Malkin, head of Easington Primary School in the East Riding of Yorkshire told delegates: "I'm hurt, I'm frustrated, I'm deeply, deeply angry about the harm we are doing to our education service and to the children that are in it by not having an effective, up-to-date, assessment process fit for the 21st century.

"Words cannot express how much I loath and detest the SATs (Standard Assessment Tests) system and the publication of league tables.

"I know from what I have heard this weekend that you feel the same.

"SATs are causing pain, sickness, fear and anguish in our children."

The acronym of SATs actually stood for "senseless activities for traumatised students," he declared.

Former NAHT president Liz Paver warned that the government would soon force schools to publish their results for seven-year-olds' tests. That could even lead to infant school tests and league tables of results achieved by five-year-olds.

"If we really don't campaign on getting rid of this particular set, I fear for our three to five-year-olds, I really do."

The NUT believes a boycott could be legal under trade union law, as the tests are an attack on the professionalism of teachers.

But Education Secretary Charles Clarke has said: "The tests are here to stay."

Any boycott would be certain to face a legal challenge, as it was in the 1993, soon after SATs were extended across the country by the then Conservative government.