EVERY Oxford primary head polled by The Oxford Times believes school league tables are unfair and half might take part in action to disrupt them.

The county's 11-year-olds sat their Key Stage Two SATs (standard assessment tests) earlier this month, but if some heads have their way, this will be the last cohort to be ranked through "public humiliation".

Out of 14 city heads who responded to our survey, all thought league tables were unfair and seven said they would consider taking some form of action to oppose them.

Earlier this month, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) voted unanimously to oppose the publication of primary league tables and its general secretary, Mick Brookes, suggested parents back the campaign by keeping their children home on test days.

But Joe Johnson, head of Sandhills Primary School in Oxford, is calling for heads to disrupt Oxfordshire's results rather than the actual tests by withholding a percentage of their grades.

He said: "We all want to know how kids are getting on and it's absolutely right that we should be accountable, but using league tables to compare one school with another is wrong.

"Enough's enough in terms of the public humiliation of schools and teachers who are working their socks off.

"We've got fixated with measuring but we're measuring the wrong things.

"Does a tree grow bigger if you measure it every day?

"Why are we paying these people to crunch away at numbers? Give them all the sack and put the money into front-line services."

Oxfordshire's spokesman for the Association of Teachers & Lecturers, Bob Martyn, said: "I don't think anyone likes league tables and we would support action to oppose them.

"We don't like the idea of the results being published in this way because of the difficulties it causes for schools in deprived areas."

Clive Hallett, Oxfordshire's NAHT spokesman and a retired primary head, agreed league tables should be abandoned, but was against heads disrupting the tests.

He said: "The worst thing they do is condemn a school that has low-performing pupils because of their background.

"That school may have done wonders for its children but their results put them towards the bottom of the pile.

"But if we want to get rid of league tables, we've got to play it straight."

Michael Waine, Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet member for schools improvement and a retired head, said raw test results should be published but that value added performance was a better guide to how schools were faring.

He said: "Parents and the community do have the right to see how schools are performing and the test results are an important part of the whole picture about how schools are impacting on their children's future.

"I don't feel that direct action by heads would be helpful."

In response to our findings, a spokesman for the Government's Department for Education and Skills (DfES) warned that Key Stage tests were a "non-negotiable part of school reform".

She said: "They provide valuable objective evidence in the core subjects, helping inform further improvements to teaching and learning. This is an important part of our drive to raise standards in the basics even further in primary schools."