Oxfordshire headteachers have welcomed an announcement by Education Secretary Charles Clarke that primary school testing is to be watered down.

Mr Clarke will drop the target for 85 per cent of 11-year-olds to achieve set standards in English and maths by 2004, while tests for seven-year-olds will form a smaller part of teachers' assessment of pupil performance.

Standard Assessment Tests (Sats) for seven- and 11-year-olds have been a bugbear of the teaching profession since they were introduced 12 years ago.

Mr Clarke stopped short of abolishing testing, despite pressure from teachers and parents' groups.

He said he wanted to strike a balance between testing and assessment and giving schools greater freedom to pursue standards in their own way.

The National Association for Primary Education welcomed the news as a "sensible" move to improve the situation in schools.

Mark Forder, Oxfordshire branch secretary of the National Union of Teachers, and deputy headteacher of Larkrise Primary School, in Oxford, said: "The Government plucked the targets out of thin air, without consulting teachers, for political capital.

"It's good news for the Government in that it will save them from appearing to fail, but it won't make a huge difference to teachers because they largely ignored them anyway because the targets are so foolish."

Alfie Hay, headteacher of Speedwell Primary School, in Oxford, said: "At the age of seven, pupil performance is very volatile. Some are shooting ahead and some haven't started yet, so tests are not very useful."

Julie St Claire Hoare, headtacher of West Oxford Community Primary School, said: "It recognises the expertise of teachers, instead of relying on pure data. This will mean relying more on their assessments based on their more solid knowledge of the curriculum and the children in their care.

"You need to look at overall performance, and tests are just a snapshot."

Mr Clarke said: "There are some extremists, like the NUT conference and the Tory (education) spokesman, who believe that all tests at the age of 11 should be abolished. That's not my view.

"The fact is 89 per cent of those people who don't get SATS 4 at Key Stage Two don't succeed in getting five GCSEs later on.

"We've got seven or eight million adults now who can't read or write at those level two levels and it's really important that we continue the amount of pressure very strongly to ensure that people at the age of 11 can read and write effectively."

Mr Clarke is also expected to give headteachers more freedom to decide on the curriculum in their schools.