SCHOOLS are braced for “strike” action by children after tens of thousands of people signed a petition supporting a boycott in protest over exams for six- and seven-year-olds.

The Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign wants parents across England to keep their children off school today, saying they are “over-tested, over-worked and in a school system that places more importance on test results and league tables than children’s happiness and joy of learning”.

The petition, signed by more than 38,000 people, added: “We want our kids to be kids again and enjoy learning for learning’s sake, not for Ofsted results or league table figures.

“Bring back the creativity and the fun – say goodbye to repetition and boredom.”

In an open letter to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, published on their website, the Year Two parents behind Let Our Kids Be Kids said they “represent the voice of parents across the country” who “want an end to Sats (standard assessment tests) now”. 

They wrote: “Please take a long, hard look at this. “Do you want your legacy to be the confident cancellation of unneeded and unnecessary Sats, showing you are listening to your electorate and the teachers you claim to support ... or the overseeing of a shambolic testing regime desperately unwanted by millions of people to the point that this country saw its first open parent revolt?

“You have the power to stop these tests. NOW. Our children, our teachers and our schools deserve better than this.”

Sats are taken by children aged six or seven in Year Two and then again in Year Six, aged 10 or 11, before a third set in Year Nine aged 13 or 14.

The Education Secretary warned that missing school even for a single day would be “harmful” and called for those behind the “damaging” campaign to reconsider their actions. In a speech on Saturday, she said: “What are the limits placed on a child’s imagination, when they cannot write down their ideas for others to read?”