Teachers are preparing to take industrial action in protest at “immoral” exams for four-year-olds.

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) have called for a major campaign against the "damaging" literacy and numeracy checks for children at the start of reception.

The union, which has a long standing opposition to primary school tests, seeks to disrupt voluntary pilots of the tests next year, including the possibility of industrial action.

"Baseline" checks for reception-age children in England were announced by former education secretary Justine Greening last year as part of an overhaul of primary school testing which included a decision to scrap national curriculum tests - known as Sats - for seven-year-olds.

During a debate at the NUT conference in Brighton, teachers raised concerns about the assessments, arguing that it would mean young children told they are "not good enough" within weeks of starting school.