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Parents keep children off school in protest over controversial exams

Parents have kept their children off school for the day in protest over controversial tests for six and seven-year-olds.

The action comes after more than 40,000 people signed a petition supporting a boycott of Year 2 Sats by teachers.

The Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign has organised the day of action in protest at children being "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".

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan had warned that missing school even for a single day would be "harmful" and called for those behind the "damaging" campaign to reconsider.

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School strike: 'SATs stress like Charles Dickens scene'

"Let Our Kids Be Kids" campaign kicks off Credit: Good Morning Britain

SATs exams are leaving schoolchildren "disengaged and stressed", according to some parents.

Thousands of children are being kept at home on Tuesday as part of a Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign against tests for six, seven and 11-year-olds.

Ben Ramalingam, who is keeping his five-year-old son off school, said some parents believe the situation is turning into a "mental health crisis".

"We are concerned parents taking a stand, we don't want our kids to be stressed out by the time they become teenagers because they have been inappropriately taught", he said.

"Our children are being pushed towards rote-based learning. It is like something out of Charles Dickens".

Jane Clout said: "I'm a grandmother and I sent my children through the state system in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and when I first started taking these boys to school I was struck by how primary schools have improved.

"But this is like going back to the 1950s".

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Parents keep children off school in protest over controversial exams

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