The head teacher - who has been teaching since 1965 - says the tests do not benefit anyone.

We had one 11-year-old boy who had to be hospitalised for stress over the exams

"I believe in assessment. Any good teacher will make an assessment of a child and use it to help them, to take them forward."

But she says testing leads to a waste of resources in terms of time and money.

Mrs Mitchell says the school does its best not to worry the children about the tests, but they are affected.

"We tell them just to do their best but they do get worried, in part by the formality of sitting the tests.

"We had one 11-year-old boy who had to be hospitalised for stress over the exams."

Despite her misgivings about testing children, Mrs Mitchell believes the national tests for 11-year-olds have some merit.

Invidious

"On balance, I would keep those, mainly because they can be used by secondary schools to help children progress.

"In the past, secondary schools used to treat all children as if they knew nothing, which was wrong.

"The problem with SATs tests is that judgements are made about teaching. It's invidious and unjust."

Mrs Mitchell says the test results simply reflect the cohort or group which are sitting the tests that year and are not necessarily a reflection of teaching.

At her school, all children are Muslim and have English as a second language. It is an unusual faith school, where there are no Christian pupils.

She expects SATs results for 11 year olds to be lower this year because there are a number of children with special needs in the class, together with some who have had long breaks from school.

"The teaching has been just as good as it was two years ago when we scored 87%, the same enthusiasm, the same hard work, so the tests should not be used to make judgements."