The government’s response to the Covid 19 crisis shows it does not trust teachers, teaching union delegates will be told this weekend.

This criticism comes in a motion published this morning which will be debated at this weekend’s National Education Union special conference.

The union’s leadership has also strongly criticised the government today over its plans for exams next year and the lack of Covid-19 testing available for schools.

Revealed: How to check Covid infection rates near your school

Covid: Union urges DfE to create extra classrooms to reduce virus transmission

Sats: Union could call for heads to refuse to prepare for national tests

A motion put forward to the NEU conference calls for teacher moderated assessment to be used for Sats and be part of GCSEs and A levels amid ongoing disruption caused by the coronavirus.

And it says that the government’s response to Covid-19  “demonstrated that policy-making is based on data not pupil need, and highlighted its distrust of teachers and leaders.”  It also calls on heads to refuse to prepare for these national tests.

At a press conference today, ahead of the special conference, the NEU’s joint general secretary Mary Bousted criticised the government on both the issues of exams and a lack of Covid-19 testing.

It comes as data shows the number of secondary schools in England at least partially closed because of Covid has doubled.

Dr Bousted said: “The government’s determination to go ahead with Sats and GCSEs and A levels and to only really talk about a slight delayed timetable - the talk at the moment is do we delay it by one week or three weeks - that is an inadequate response to the scale of the challenge which is now presented through Covid.

“Ofqual’s proposals for minimal alterations to GCSEs and A levels are increasingly untenable given the scale of the disruption to education caused by an ineffective test, trace and isolate system and a lack of investment in education in a pandemic.

She said that Sats will be a “completely inadequate” measure during Covid-19 and need to be replaced next year by moderated teacher assessed grades.

She added: “Nobody wanted unmoderated teacher assessments this year, nobody called for that, but it happened because of the government’s failure to take control of the situation.

“The danger is that Boris Johnson and Gavin Williamson’s will that exams will take place will cause yet another catastrophe next summer because circumstances will change and the government is showing how unwilling it is to look at the reality of the situation and to react to it.”

She said the government’s failure to develop alternative plans for next year’s exams was a “dereliction of duty”.

Joint general secretary Kevin Courtney also said that the government was “letting down schools” by not taking the steps necessary to ensure they can stay fully open during the pandemic.

He called for the government to create ‘nightingale classes’ to reduce class sizes and also said schools needed access to asymptomatic testing to ensure disruption caused by Covid-19 is minimised.