A SOUTHEND teacher is leading the charge against Government plans which would see pre-school children sitting new baseline “tests” as they start primary school.

Elaine Bennett, an early years teacher listed as working at Friars Primary School and Nursery, in Southend, joined hundreds of people on a march from Parliament Square today in protest against a 20-minute “baseline assessment” which children could soon be sitting within their first term at school.

The group, including four-year-olds, parents, teachers and MPs, presented a petition of 65,000 signatures against the plans, addressed to Schools Minister Nick Gibb.

Mrs Bennett said: “This assessment regime has nothing to do with providing a quality education and everything to do with a system obsessed with league tables and turning children into data points as soon as they start school.”

She added: “Like SATs, the baseline tests will bring extra workload for teachers as well as stress for children right at the start of their school experience when settling in happily and confidently should have first priority.”

Although campaigners say children will be subject to tests, the Department for Education (DfE) contends this is not the case because there is no pass mark and no reason for pupils to be prepared for it.

The DfE said they are an assessment of maths, language and literacy skills.

As part of the tests, children will give answers by pointing, moving objects and giving oral responses, and teachers will make note of their responses on an iPad.

They will be trialled by volunteering schools from this autumn with a view to the scheme being rolled out to all schools in England in 2020.

Parents, teachers, heads and education experts were led by action group More Than A Score from Parliament Square in Westminster, waving flags and chanting “we are small, we are four, we are more than just a score”.

The British Educational Research Association, a charity encouraging educational improvement, has described the tests as “flawed, unjustified and totally unfit for purpose”.

A DfE spokesman said: “Carried out in the right way, children should not even be aware an assessment is taking place.”

He added: “It will simply provide a vital starting point to measure how well primary schools are doing to make sure all children reach their potential.”

He added: “It is just an opportunity for teachers to gauge exactly what

level a child is at when they arrive.

“The current assessment of schools doesn’t take this into account.”