Responding to new recommendations from the IPPR on reforms to primary assessment, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"IPPR’s recommendations would lay the foundations for a more equitable, accessible system where teachers can focus on supporting pupils, and children can focus on developing a love of learning.
"The primary school assessment and accountability system fails all children, particularly disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND. NEU members know that change is long-overdue and cannot wait.
"The government cannot possibly hope to address the causes of disengagement from learning without recognising that this begins in primary school.
"SATs have a devastating impact on disadvantaged children and those with SEND by labelling many a ‘failure’, narrowing the curriculum, reducing enrichment, and failing to capture what pupils know and can do.
"While we still need to see SATs scrapped, the NEU supports IPPR's recommendation to remove the draconian, universally unpopular SPaG test and the recommendation to end the publication of school-level data.
"The education secretary recently said we need to go beyond a one-size-fits-all system that sets too many up to fail. It's time to put words into action."