THE prospect of children being turned away from classes by teachers protesting about their workload loomed yesterday despite claims by leaders of the largest classroom union that they had seen off the threat by more left-wing members.

NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy made it clear he believed he had outflanked militant delegates at the union's annual conference by using the media to raise the prospect of classes being trimmed to 27 pupils.

But delegates in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, passed a motion containing provisions that could spell a revival of the union's "class size action" policy, although the far left also said it would not do anything to harm children's education.

Mr McAvoy made it clear his union would hold strike ballots if necessary to protect jobs, terms and conditions on issues ranging from workload to the involvement of private firms in state education.

After two days of often heated debate on the union's campaign against the workload agreement, the NUT's opposition to vast areas of Government policy could not have been clearer.

It followed the potentially even more far-reaching decision to hold ballots on a possible boycott of national tests for seven, 11 and 14-year-olds which the NUT reached on Sunday.

But a disagreement between moderates and militants over tactics in the anti-agreement campaign led to the revival of the class size limits policy that the union has held for some years.

Mr McAvoy admitted on Sunday that limiting class sizes to 27 by a process known as "rotational exclusion" had the potential to make parents believe his members did not care about the education of their pupils.