MERSEYSIDE’S teaching union officials last night claimed a boycott of tests had been a success – despite headteachers in some local authorities refusing to support the snub.

Yesterday marked the start of a national boycott this week of the controversial Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) taken by 10 and 11-year-olds.

The National Union of Teachers and National Association of Head Teachers are behind the boycott.

In the build-up to the boycott, Merseyside NUT claimed the majority of its members would be willing to take part in the protest against the tests which both unions say encourage schools to “teach to test” and are used unfairly as the basis for annual performance league tables.

But a Daily Post investigation found that, while the boycott was supported in some council areas – in others not a single headteacher was willing to toe the unions’ line and proceeded with yesterday’s English tests as planned. Areas which refused to entertain halting the SATs included Knowsley.

While, in Wirral, the council insisted it had received no reports of schools participating in the boycott.

And this was borne out by the Daily Post’s own probe, with virtually all the schools we contacted in the borough confirming it would be business as usual and the tests would go ahead this week.

But, in Sefton, the local authority confirmed around 80% of primary schools were boycotting the tests.

And the National Union of Teachers said it believed at least 50%of schools in Liverpool would be snubbing the tests – mirroring the picture across the North West.

Last night, Avis Gilmore, the union’s regional secretary said Merseyside teachers had “done enough to make this year’s league tables even more meaningless than usual.”