Maplim news blog

The government has declared a proposed boycott of next year's Sats "unlawful" raising the question of a legal challenge if the National Union of Teachers backs the plans at its annual conference in Cardiff tomorrow.

The move escalates tensions between the government and teaching unions. The National Association of Head Teachers will vote on the same proposals next month.

A spokesman for the Department for Children Schools and Families said the boycott would be "irresponsible, unlawful, and out of touch with what parents want". Government lawyers had concluded that headteachers have a statutory duty to administer the tests, he said.

The unions are threatening to bring the system of testing every 11-year-old in England to a halt next year unless ministers have instigated reforms to the system.

The unions say that Sats – and the league tables of results – force schools to teach to the test, narrowing learning and putting teachers and pupils under extreme pressure. But ministers insist that tests at the end of primary school are critical to assessing pupils' progress and holding schools to account.

The NUT today insisted a boycott would be legal. Graham Clayton, a senior solicitor for the union, said: "If there was any serious question about the lawfulness we wouldn't be doing it." A legal challenge against the last teacher boycott of tests in 1993 by Wandsworth council failed.

The motion to be debated tomorrow instructs union officials to campaign for the removal of the tests. "Once all other reasonable avenues have been exhausted, ballot all relevant members for joint action to boycott the key stage one and two statutory tests, for the academic year 2009-10, if the government refuses to remove them." A ballot of the full membership of the union would follow within the year. A separate motion, also due for debate tomorrow, condemns Sats as "unreliable" after studies suggested up to half of English papers taken by 14-year-olds may have been wrongly marked.

The schools secretary, Ed Balls, has said the system is "not set in stone" and ordered a review of alternatives. But he has insisted that some testing at the end of primary school will remain. He has attacked the boycott proposals as "irresponsible" behaviour by teachers.

The unions say they will oversee the tests this year, but not next year, insisting that will allow time for an orderly transition to a new system. But Christine Blower, the acting general secretary of the NUT, yesterday suggested there was room for negotiation. "Our position is not a boycott come what may. It's about saying we genuinely think that Sats are not the way forward. Here is a long period of time, the expert group can report, let's talk about what happens next," she said. Calling on members to back the boycott, the union's outgoing president, Bill Greenshields, said: "We will end this child abuse."

Balls said today: "We aren't going to go back to the old days when there wasn't that information and schools could not be achieving for children and it would not be clear and public. The current testing system is being looked at. We cannot just not comply with the law in this way. That would be the wrong thing to do."

A spokesman for his department added: "The motion proposed by the NUT leadership ... is irresponsible, it is unlawful and it is out of touch with what parents and teachers want. They should think again.

More than 600,000 11-year-olds will sit tests in English, maths and science next month. Last year the marking collapsed under a new firm, ETS, which was subsequently sacked. The crisis led to the decision by the government to scrap tests for 14-year-olds and launch the review. .

Separately, trials are also being conducted into "single level testing", which tests pupils when teachers think they are ready rather than en masse once a year.

Microsoft and Yahoo are in talks over a possible search engine partnership less than a year after Bill Gates' software group failed in a $44bn (Ł21.3bn) takeover attempt on the internet company.

Although there is no suggestion that Microsoft's failed bid will be resurrected, the two companies are believed to be discussing ways they can link up to combat the growing power of their chief rival, Google.

Quoting sources close to the discussions, the authoritative Dow Jones All Things Digital blog said that "the talks between the pair are preliminary and wide-ranging".

The talks come more than a year after Microsoft launched its audacious and drawn-out attempt to buy its Silicon Valley rival. The episode ended with the $44bn bid being rejected, but led to Yahoo's chief executive Jerry Yang stepping down from the role.

His replacement, Carol Bartz, arrived in January and cleaned out much of Yahoo's executive team, paving the way for fresh contact with her counterpart at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer.

A link between the two companies is seen by many as mutually beneficial in their struggle to take on the growing influence of Google. Yahoo and Microsoft have lost further ground to their chief rival, according to the latest figures on search engine market share from ComScore.

The figures showed Yahoo now has 20.6% of the market and analysts predict it could fall another 3% this year. Meanwhile Microsoft has slipped to 8.2%, while Google has continued to increase its dominant share. Neither Microsoft nor Yahoo would comment, but it is known that they are eager to explore any way to boost their standing in the search advertising business.

Talking to Wall Street analysts, Ballmer confirmed that he thought fresh blood could kickstart discussions.

"The fact of the matter is, these two guys [Microsoft and Yahoo] should somehow figure out how to get together and create more competition for this guy [Google]. And I'm hoping perhaps that that's a reasonable conversation to have with new management at Yahoo as Carol comes on board," he said.

Yahoo has been more reticent over restarting discussions with the Seattle-based software company – particularly after Ballmer poached a number of the company's most valued staff members.

Bartz, who is notoriously concerned with media coverage and leaks about the company's dealings, has previously told investors that she would not let any negotiations take place in the glare of the public eye. "I said this to Mr. Ballmer: I will not negotiate with you and 30,000 of my closest friends. I will negotiate privately," she said last month, telling shareholders that "if something happens, you will know about it then".

The American sailor being held hostage by Somali pirates managed to jump off the lifeboat where he is being held but was quickly recaptured, US military officials said today amid reports that the pirates have demanded a ransom for his release.


Captain Richard Phillips jumped into the ocean and tried to swim away at around midnight last night, but his captors fired at least one shot, and he returned to the boat. The escape bid was witnessed by the US navy but happened too quickly for them to come to his aid. It was not clear if the pirates had aimed at Phillips, but he is believed to be unharmed.


News of Phillips' daring escape attempt came after the pirates vowed to fight if they are attacked. There were also unconfirmed reports that the hijackers had called in reinforcements.


An unnamed Somali, who helped negotiate a previous ransom, told Associated Press that the pirates want a ransom and are ready to kill him if attacked. He told the news agency he has spoken with a pirate leader on the ground in Somalia who is coordinating action on the lifeboat adrift in the Indian Ocean. He says the plan is to get the hostage to shore to negotiate from a better position.



Mohamed Samaw, a Somali resident of the pirate stronghold in central Eyl town, who claimed to have a "share" in a British-owned ship hijacked on Monday, told the Associated Press four foreign ships previously captured by pirates were heading towards the lifeboat.


General David Petraeus, the head of US central command, said the US navy was also sending more ships - including the guided-missile frigate USS Haliburton - to "ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days".


But despite an apparently hopeless position, the pirates show no signs of giving in. "We are safe and we are not afraid of the Americans," one of the pirates told Reuters by satellite phone. "We will defend ourselves if attacked."



The US navy last night called in a team of FBI negotiators to try to secure the release of Phillips, who is being held by four Somali gunmen in a lifeboat some 300 miles off the Horn of Africa.


The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said: "We are bringing to bear a number of our assets, including naval and FBI, in order to resolve the hostage situation and bring the pirates to justice,"


Helicopters had also been deployed to the scene, while a P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft was securing aerial footage. "FBI negotiators stationed at Quantico [in Virginia] have been called by the navy to assist with negotiations with the Somali pirates and are fully engaged in this matter," an FBI spokesman said.


Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama, had offered himself as a hostage during a dramatic turn of events in which the gunmen escaped in the ship's lifeboat with their captive after the 20-strong American crew overpowered them and retook control of the vessel.


A pirate named only as Badow told the Associated Press that a "good number of well-equipped colleagues" were heading to the scene to help the pirates escape. "We are not intending to harm the captain, so that we hope our colleagues would not be harmed as long as they hold him," Badow said.


"All we need, first, is a safe route to escape with the captain, and then (negotiate) ransom later," he added.


A spokesman for Maersk, the largest container shipping company in the world, said yesterday that Phillips was believed to be unharmed. His family had gathered at his farmhouse in Vermont waiting for news.


Andrew Mwangura, the head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said the Alabama had left the scene and was sailing under armed guard towards Mombasa, Kenya – its original destination – where it was expected to dock tomorrow. None of the crew members were hurt in the attack.


"They will release the captain, I think, maybe today or tomorrow, but in exchange for something. Maybe some payment or compensation, and definitely free passage back home," Mwangura told Reuters.


A stalemate appeared to have been established in which neither side had much room for negotiation. The gunmen know they are likely to be arrested if they give their hostage up while still far out to sea. In Harardheere, one of the notorious pirate strongholds in Somalia, an associate of the gang said that two boatloads of gunmen had left the port to try to assist their colleagues.


"Our friends are still holding the captain but they cannot move, they are afraid of the warships. We want a ransom and, of course, the captain is our shield. The warships might not destroy the boat as long as he is on board."


The Alabama was the sixth ship to be hijacked off Somalia's Indian Ocean coast in a week, and was believed to be the first American-flagged merchant vessel to be attacked by pirates anywhere since the early 19th century.



It is likely that the pirates used a previously captured mothership from which to launch their speedboat before attacking the Alabama. Normally at least nine or 10 gunmen form part of an attack team, and it is not known why just four men armed with AK-47s tried to take the large container ship, usually a difficult vessel to hijack due to its speed and the height of its deck. The ship was carrying thousands of tonnes of food aid, some of it meant for Somalia.


According to second mate Ken Quinn, who spoke by telephone to CNN, the pirates sank their speedboat shortly after boarding the Alabama early on Wednesday. The crew managed to regain control of the ship from the pirates by "brute force", according to another crew member's account. Phillips is reported to have convinced the gunmen to board the lifeboat after agreeing to go with them in order to secure the safety of his fellow sailors.