By Hayley Robinson

Five Sittingbourne schools boycotted the controversial SATs last week.

Head teachers at Lower Halstow School, Regis Manor Community Primary School, Murston Junior School, South Avenue Junior School and Holywell Primary School refused to hand out the maths and English papers.

The boycott followed calls by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Union of Teachers to end the tests and league tables based on them.

They are calling for assessments to be left in the hands of teachers who know the pupils and what their capabilities are.

Letters were sent to parents prior to the tests, which took place from May 10 to May 13, informing them that Year 6 pupils would not be sitting them.

Lower Halstow School head teacher Cathy Walker said: "We don't feel the tests give an accurate picture of our children's abilities.

"I had no adverse reaction from parents. In fact, one parent congratulated me on doing it. I think they trust us as a school.

"We are not anti-testing but the pressure put on pupils at that particular time in one week is too much and they don't always perform to the best of their ability."

Wendy Woodford, deputy head of Regis Manor, said: "We didn't have any parents concerned about the school's decision, they were more concerned about the stress they place the children under so they were quite relieved."

And Margaret Laming, head of Murston Juniors, said: "We did it because we agreed with the NAHT proposals which is to completely review SATs. We felt it was the right thing to do.

"SATs shouldn't just be based on one test carried out in one week because children are in school a long time and we need to look at the whole picture. It's quite unfair on pupils and it puts a lot of pressure on them."

The head of Holywell Primary School declined to comment and the head of South Avenue Junior School was unavailable.

Rosalind Turner, Kent County Council managing director for children and education, said: "KCC supports SATs at Key Stage 2 as a measure for children and parents on progress achieved at primary school.

"We encouraged all our head teachers and governors to ignore the ballot and implement SATs as normal."