THOUSANDS of pupils in the region will miss out on their Sats this week as headteachers boycott the tests.

Hundreds of schools in the North-East and North Yorkshire have told education chiefs they will not run the tests, which were due to start yesterday.

The Northern Echo: Schools Sats tableThe protest follows a ballot by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

More than half of primaries in Darlington will not take part, while all Hartlepool primary schools will boycott the tests.

Durham County Council confirmed yesterday that 31 of its primary schools would definitely not run the tests with officials still waiting to hear from another 92. In Stockton, 24 out of 34 schools are taking part in the boycott.

Peter King, headteacher of Corporation Road Primary School, in Darlington, is the local branch secretary for the NAHT.

He believed the way Sats were administered in schools was wrong.

He said: “I believe that the sum total of a child’s learning from nursery through to year six should not be narrowed into how well they perform in a few tests in early May.

“I also believe that neither the child nor the school, and its staff, should then be judged so intensely based on those narrow test results, as is currently the case.”

Schools in North Yorkshire are still reporting to the local authority about their intention to boycott the tests.

The boycott was expected to be the first battle a new government would have to face, but with a hung Parliament following Thursday’s General Election, it appears there has been no last ditch move by politicians to get it called off.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have insisted that Sats should not be scrapped, although Labour said the system is “not set in stone”.

The Tories and the Lib Dems pledged to reform the tests.