By Justin Parkinson BBC News Online education staff, in Bournemouth

Mary Bousted: proposals "would reduce stress"

The government must "slay some sacred cows" of testing and league tables if it is to cater learning to children's needs, a teachers' leader has warned.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said the "one size fits all" curriculum had damaged schools.

Rather than testing all children in England at the age of seven, she recommended testing "a representative sample of pupils".

This, Dr Bousted argued, would give as much of an indication of standards as blanket testing does, while reducing the levels of stress for staff and children.

Learning through play was being ignored, as schools focused on league tables.

"Teaching to the test" was benefiting no one, she added, and would make the government's policy of "individual learning" impossible.

The average child was now undergoing "105 tests" between the ages of five and 16.

'Profound damage'

In her address to the ATL's annual conference in Bournemouth, Dr Bousted said: "What has driven government policy until now is the entirely misguided belief that 'one size fits all' - one curriculum delivered through centrally defined teaching strategies and techniques - would meet the hugely diverse needs of today's pupils and students."

DIFFERENT APPROACHES Testing around the UK

She added: "The damage of this misguided approach has been profound and far-reaching.

"It has resulted in teachers feeling their professional knowledge and expertise are ignored and devalued.

"It has led to an exodus from the profession, as teachers have become demoralised and exhausted."

Policy had been "dreamed up by teenage scribblers in Sanctuary Buildings" (the headquarters of the Department for Education and Skills).

Dr Bousted called for the establishment of an independent national body to monitor the tests taken by samples of children.

School profiles Phil Baker, an ATL activist from Swindon, said the league tables generated from test results now cost the taxpayer �3m a year to produce.

"Isn't it time teachers thought about challenging this government over this issue and, if we can find legal ways of doing so, refuse to co-operate with their production?" he asked.

On Wednesday, Schools Minister Stephen Twigg told the conference that parents needed the information tables conveyed.

But the government was experimenting with private school prospectus-style "school profiles" to provide a "richer" picture of a school's activities to go with league tables based on test results, he said.

However, Dr Bousted said the government would need "to radically alter some of its current policies and requirements".

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said tests, targets and performance tables were here to stay.

"They boost standards and help to achieve the best for every child," she said.

"We are trialling a new approach to assessment for seven year olds in response to concerns raised by the profession and parents. If the new system, which uses tests to support teacher assessment, proves to be a success we will roll it out nation-wide.