THE NUT’s Stand Up For Education campaign is our union’s response to the most concerted attacks on education and teachers in generations.

It is based around lessons from the Chicago Teachers Union but it has developed and grown to meet our needs and deal with the attacks we face.

Teachers across the country have used the campaign to engage with union members, parents and the public to put pressure on politicians and to argue for the sort of education system that we believe is needed.

In east London they have organised tea parties for parents after school to talk about the NUT Education Manifesto, women’s groups in London and Nottingham have organised social events to engage and involve female members and across the country Education Question Times took place leading up to the general election.

The NUT recently carried out research into the testing and accountability measures in our schools. The results, published recently under the title Exam Factories, do not tell a happy story.

We know our children and young people are over-tested and that these tests often tell us very little that we did not already know.

They have created a “high-stakes” climate in our schools with increasing pressure being put on staff and students to increase test scores.

One of our most recent campaigns is “4 Too Young to Test.”

The new baseline test for four-year-olds is the latest to add to a long list of tests now being carried out in our primary schools.

This test has to be completed in the first six weeks of a child starting in reception.

Some of these children will have only just turned four and need time to adjust to a new setting and new people.

Some of them may never have been away from home before. All the social development and nurturing work that early years settings are so good at risks being lost.

Researchers also believe that it is likely that these tests will be unreliable and statistically invalid.

But the biggest concern for many of us is the damage these tests may cause to children’s wellbeing, engagement and attitude to learning. We do not want four-year-olds labeled as failures.

The NUT campaign against these tests has been lively and enthusiastic.

We have had picnics in the park to engage with parents and the community, stalls in town centres with balloons, leaflets and petitions and we have put pressure on politicians.

NUT members have made biscuits, cakes and sandwiches, they have put on activities that four-year-olds should be taking part in — story sessions, singing, craft sessions and science experiments!

They have also talked to hundreds of parents, grandparents and members of the community about these damaging tests.

We have worked closely with other early years organisations such as the Save Childhood Movement and Early Education and the campaign has been widely supported by children’s authors and education academics.

We have collected thousands of signatures from people who oppose the baseline test and will be handing these in at a lobby of the Department for Education during our “you can’t test this” week of action.

One of the most shocking things that I have noticed during campaigning is that parents have not been told that this is happening.

Once parents are aware then the general response is that they do not want their children tested and labelled at four.

This is a model of organising and campaigning that we can use to start to engage with our members and our communities. We have some hard fights ahead as we have a government which is intent on attacking us, so it is vital that we build support from the grassroots and that we give our members and our communities the courage to fight with us.