TEACHERS’ union NUT warned of schools being “forcibly academised” yesterday after the Tories announced plans to make students with poor results resit their SATs in secondary school.

The move would see 100,000 pupils take new English and maths exams in the first year of secondary school due to David Cameron’s promises of “more rigour, zero tolerance of failure and mediocrity.”

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: “Schools are being forced to jump through ever smaller hoops to ‘prove’ their effectiveness.

“This is impacting on the broad and balanced education they can provide as well as the emotional and social aspects of education that are so important to children and young people’s well-being.”

Children as young as 11 take their SATs every year, with 79 per cent of students achieving the needed results in 2013-14.

But according to the Conservatives, lower SATs influence later exam results, with only 7 per cent of weaker students getting good GCSEs.

“Primary schools are being forcibly academised on the back of their SATs results,” added Ms Blower.

“It is now being suggested that secondaries that do not ensure that children ‘pass’ their SATs on the proposed resits will be subject to intervention — a veiled threat to more forced academisation in the secondary sector.

“Yet as we know, academies perform no better than maintained schools.

“The last thing that schools or pupils need is yet more high stakes testing.”