Disgruntled headteachers could take industrial action after they voted overwhelmingly against schools having academy status thrust upon them.

A motion that “no schools should be forced to become an academy” was amended to include the “last resort” move at the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) annual conference in Birmingham. It was passed by 95% of delegates.

The alteration instructed the association’s national executive to “consider all options open to NAHT up to and including as a last resort industrial action to ensure the defence of our comprehensive state education system”.

Prior to the vote, the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, was met with derision from headteachers after telling them that new primary school tests were “not about pass or fail”.

Morgan’s appearance at the conference in Birmingham was punctuated with heckling and sceptical laughter, and came close to degenerating further when Morgan accused a questioner of sexism.

Simon Kidwell, a headteacher from a primary school in Cheshire, asked Morgan to consider easing the marking rules to give students with disabilities such as dyslexia more leeway.

When Morgan said she was reluctant to make further changes with the tests only a few weeks away, Kidwell followed up: “Are you in charge of the department or is Nick Gibb?” – a reference to the schools minister regarded as responsible for the new tests – and received sustained applause from his colleagues.

“I’m not going to dignify that sexist remark with a comment,” Morgan responded, provoking boos from the audience.

Tony Draper, a primary school head in Milton Keynes and the NAHT’s outgoing president, tweeted:

#NAHT2016 much anger that Nicky Morgan hid behind a "sexist" comment that every delegate clearly knows was not-inadequate judgement Nicky — Tony Draper (@TonyDraper12) April 30, 2016

Morgan also said parents should not take part in a boycott planned for Tuesday 3 May in protest at the new assessments, calling it “damaging”.

“Keeping children home even for a day undermines their education,” she said. “I urge those running these campaigns to reconsider their actions.”

Earlier, Morgan elicited a loud, sceptical response from the nearly 500 mainly primary school heads when she declared: “This is not about pass or fail, this is about knowing how children are making progress at the end of their primary school years.”

Heads later pointed out that under the government’s policies, pupils who failed the key stage two tests in English and maths would be forced to re-sit them in their first year of secondary school.

Russell Hobby, the NAHT’s general secretary, told delegates he was worried that the gap between the government and the teaching profession was widening.

In her speech Morgan offered a concession to headteachers concerned that new, tougher tests in year six would lead to many schools being labelled as failing. She said the proportion of primary schools likely to be classed as failing the government’s floor standards for key stage two tests would be frozen at the same level as last year.

“I do not want people to be fretting and thinking that somehow it means many, many more schools are going to be below the floor standards this year. That is not what we intend,” Morgan said.

The shadow education secretary, Lucy Powell, said Morgan had been warned for months about the problems with the new assessments.

“Now the government is being forced to water down its own performance measures just days before the primary Sats tests are due to start. The chaos this government is causing in the exams and assessment system is staggering, and Nicky Morgan has some serious questions to answer,” Powell said.

Morgan otherwise stuck to her guns on the new assessments and the policy of forcing all state schools to become academies by 2022, which she described as allowing schools to “make the right choice” – to which two delegates shouted: “Rubbish!”

The end of Morgan’s speech was met with tepid applause, with many delegates appearing not to clap.

The Department for Education later responded to the motion on academisation, saying it was “disappointing” to hear of a union considering industrial action which it said “holds back children’s education, disrupts parents’ lives and ultimately damages the reputation of the profession”.

A spokeswoman said: “The academies programme is at the heart of our reforms which have raised standards for children across the country, including many schools that stagnated under local authority control – 1.4 million more children are in good or outstanding schools compared to 2010.



“We want to work constructively with the sector to ensure every child has the excellent education they deserve.”