More than 1,200 children in Oxfordshire did not take their Sats exams as 38 primary schools in the county boycotted the tests.

The Key Stage Two tests in English and maths have been heavily criticised for putting too much pressure on ten- and 11-year-olds.

The county council’s education chief called for a review of the system – but criticised schools which refused to administer the tests for Year Six pupils.

Cabinet member for schools improvement Michael Waine said: “My personal view is that there is a need for assessment at Year Six in primary school to give a benchmark on level of education and attainment.

“That benchmark needs to be provided by a mixture of teacher assessment and standardised testing.

“We need to be able to trust teachers in certain areas and still have an assessment in reading and comprehension and maths.

“I also think very strongly the correct way of dealing with this is by a review. I don’t think schools boycotting helps the matter at all.”

In total, 1,244 children did not take their Sats exams, which equates to almost a fifth of eligible pupils in the council’s 232 primary schools.

Among the schools boycotting the tests was St Ebbe’s primary school in Whitehouse Road, South Oxford.

Instead of sitting a one hour Sats reading test, its 34 Year Six pupils carried out science experiments.

Teacher Gawain Little said: “One of the real disadvantages of Sats is they encourage constant drilling and practice when children should be getting a balanced curriculum in a wide range of subjects. Class time for arts lessons and drama is squeezed.

“The reaction we’ve had from parents today has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We achieve quite good results so don’t have to put much pressure on children but a lot of parents tell me their children do feel pressured by the tests.”

Mr Little, campaigns officer for the NUT in Oxfordshire, said the school would now conduct its own English and maths assessments and pass those results on to children’s secondary schools.

Mum-of-two Andrea Little, whose son Nicky should have taken the Sats test, said: “I support the decision of the school, the work for Sats is too intensive. Children do weeks and weeks of work just to do one paper, it’s too much.”

Mum-of-two Jane Lindsey said: “Sats cause a tremendous amount of pressure. GCSEs have to be done but we shouldn’t test them so much at this age.”

Talia Glass Woodin, ten, said: “It’s quite a relief because we were spending hours and hours practising for them.

“Now we can do proper lessons.”

However, not all parents were happy at the boycott.

Alice Sondhi, who has two children at the school, said: “I’m happy with the tests, they give you a good guideline of how well the children are doing.”