PARENTS in Herefordshire joined thousands across the country this week to take their children out of school in protest against tough academic tests.

The Let Our Kids be Kids campaign was launched in response to SAT tests – due to be taken by year-two and year-six pupils later this month – which parents say put too much pressure on their children.

More than 30,000 people have signed a petition calling for the tests, which they also believe hamper creativity in the classroom, to be boycotted.

Diahann Hughes Hawkins, 46, from Kinnersley, organised a day of outdoor play for local families who took part in the protest.

The mother-of-two said: "These tests are setting children up to fail. While they are practicing exam papers they are doing tests every day. They feel like failures.

“Children are already comparing themselves to each other. They have all got strengths in different areas and that's what schools should celebrate.

"It just tests one approach to learning and assessing and they are going to be afraid in life to take risks and do things.

“What we really need is a council independent from political parties comprised of educational experts and development specialists who know about what is appropriate for ages and for all polices to go through that council."

Isla Hampson, 40, from Hay-on-Wye, recently took her six-year-old daughter Mia out of school for three days as she had become so stressed ahead of the exams.

"It's a stressful environment and should be fun, inspiring, happy and confidence-giving,” she said.

“I kept her home and we had a really fun three days. We wrote poetry, walked outside and slowly she began to re-engage with what she was doing. She had totally disengaged with what was happening at school.”

Peter Martin, an 83-year-old grandfather who took part in the protest on behalf of his daughter who was working, added that the imposition of the exams went against the views of professional teaching staff.

Meanwhile Hereford mum Polly Ernest, who has five children including seven-year-old Meg Fuller, said the protest was not an attack on teachers – for whom parents had the greatest respect – but instead a protest to demonstrate the trust held in the teaching profession and the desire that teachers be allowed to 'teach effectively' without constant constraint.

“My eldest son, with an excellent degree from a top 10 university, often had alternative education days not at school," she said.

"My eldest daughter with three distinction stars at A-level never did SATs nor did my 17-year-old with eight A* GCSEs.

"Education is not about drilling things into young minds but giving them the resources to question and lap up information.

"These three children are also bilingual and did a large proportion of their education through the medium of a language which was not their native tongue having spent four years in French state schools.

"My seven-year-old isn't going on strike – we are having a day of alternative learning at an historic site and fostering, I hope, a lifelong love of learning like her grandparents who are active members of the U3A and her father who is currently studying for a BA."

The Department of Education has insisted tests are in pupils' interests and help teachers identify where additional support is needed.