Katherine Sellgren BBC News education reporter in Bournemouth

British children finished bottom of a Unicef well-being study

The National Association of Head Teachers attacked the government for setting a "target-obsessed and test-driven agenda".

It said this was reducing children to fodder for "statistical bean-counting".

The NAHT said schools should have time to cherish children and produce "happy and emotionally balanced adults".

In February, the United Nations children's organisation, Unicef, rated the UK bottom in a league table of 21 industrialised countries for children's emotional well-being.

Unicef looked at 40 indicators from the years 2000-2003, including poverty, family relationships and health.

'Sterile, test-ridden regime'

Delegates at the NAHT's annual general conference in Bournemouth said children deserved a childhood and should not be exploited.

"We have an education climate where very often the system knows the score of everything, but the value of nothing," said head teacher Tony Roberts.

Mr Roberts said more testing was done in schools than in the factories of the cosmetics company L'Oreal.

He said it was time to end the "sterile, test-ridden regime" in schools.

Les Turner, who seconded the NAHT motion calling for a change in the test agenda, said it was time for schools to take back control.

"Scrap league tables and retain Sats for internal use only," he said.

The motion was carried unanimously by the conference.

The Department for Education and Skills said tests were "here to stay" and were an important part of its drive to raise standards.