EDUCATION chiefs should learn a lesson from creative teachers to find out how they can improve tests, says a Worcestershire headteacher.

As Education Secretary Charles Clarke revealed a new structure for SATS for seven-year-olds, Sue Foster-Agg, headteacher at Hallow CE Primary School, said the school already carries out low-key testing in Key Stage 1 to ensure the children do not feel pressured.

Mr Clarke today unveiled changes to primary schools' testing and targets regimes. Standard Assessment Tests for seven-year-olds would be less formal and form only part of broader teacher assessments.

And he was expected to tweak a target for 85 per cent of 11-year-olds to achieve set standards in English and mathematics by 2004, instead telling schools to set their own targets so that national goals were reached as soon as possible.

"I think they should consult teachers," said Mrs Foster-Agg.

"They come up with ideas that creative schools are already doing.

"Our children don't know they're doing tests. We keep it very low-key.

"We do the Key Stage 1 tests in normal class activities.

"But they still want us to test them - why do we need to do that if we can assess them?"

The remodelled tests could also include modified Key Stage 2 tests for 11-year-olds to include judgements from Ofsted inspections about the overall quality of education at individual schools.