The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of Teachers, have issued a joint statement and written to MPs about their concerns about the reading test.
This is the first year of the phonics reading check, which will be taken by all children at the end of Year 1.
They say that the check, which involves testing children on whether they can differentiate between made-up words - such as ‘snemp, ‘spron’, ‘voo’ and ‘thaz’ – and real words, is flawed.
The unions claim that the time-consuming checks will not give the majority of teachers any new information about children’s reading ability.
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