OXFORD primary school headteachers have opposed a plan for more robust tests for seven-year-olds.

Lynn Knapp, headteacher of Windmill Primary School in Headington, spoke out after Education Secretary Nicky Morgan made the announcement in her first major policy speech since the General Election.

Mrs Morgan has called for Key Stage One tests to be tougher and marked by external examiners. Standardised national tests for pupils in Year Two were dropped in 2004, with schools in England given responsibility for assessing levels in literacy, writing, maths and science.

Seven-year-olds are currently tested according to a national framework, but the exams are run by the school themselves.

Mrs Morgan said she would be working with headteachers in the coming months on how to get the new testing system for seven-year-olds right, but Mrs Knapp said it was not necessary.

She said: “We already have nationally moderated tests in reading, maths and writing assessment.

“Nicky Morgan is saying a new test would be externally marked and there could be a new test every year.

“It would be like a mini-exam for seven-year-olds and they are too young for that.

“The system was changed in the first place because it was putting undue pressure on children.

“They can still make good academic progress without external testing – we are too obsessed with testing children in the UK .”

Sue Vermes, headteacher at Rose Hill Primary School in The Oval, also opposed the proposed changes.

She said: “The testing of pupils at Key Stage One is already fairly rigorous.

“Primary school education should be broad-based and make children enthusiastic about learning.”

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “Continual testing is not the answer and nor is changing the goalposts every time a minister speaks.

“Primary schools are already under immense pressure from having to introduce an untried baseline assessment scheme this year, alongside a new primary curriculum and new tests at the end of Key Stage 2.

“More changes to testing will not improve children’s English or maths.”

The education secretary has also proposed a new National Teaching Service, with 1,500 of the brightest teachers being recruited by 2020 to work in the country’s toughest schools.