Head teachers have rejected "unrealistic" Government ass-essment targets which demand that Bradford children must achieve the biggest improvements in the country.

New targets announced today by the Department for Education and Skills for ten- and 11-year-olds taking Key Stage Two examinations require huge gains to be made by 2004.

But the National Association of Head Teachers has urged members, which include 85 per cent of primary school heads, to discount the expectations.

In Bradford, the Government wants the number of pupils achieving the national standard of level four English to increase by more than a third by 2004.

And it has demanded that an additional 44 per cent of children achieve the same level in maths - which is the single largest rise in the country.

Alan Davy, Bradford's NAHT council member, said: "These broad, over-reaching figures do not take into account local schools and the communities they serve but add pressure and stress to the already difficult task faced by teachers and pupils in areas such as Bradford. It seems an impossible task in such a short time.

"We are committed to raising standards but they have to be reasonable."

Richard Goodswen, head of Buttershaw Primary School, is not a member of NAHT but agreed the targets are unrealistic.

"Bradford is starting from a fairly low base," he said. "Schools are working very hard to improve their results but we cannot just wave a magic wand. We do not want teachers demoralised by ever more unrealistic targets.

"We will be setting targets which we feel are realistic but challenging for us."

Pauline Chilvers is head teacher of Frizinghall Primary School which has a vast majority of bilingual pupils.

"These targets for 2004 are very high for this school and totally unrealistic," said Mrs Chilvers.

"We will set targets the same as last year - look at children here then add eight or ten per cent to push them a bit. Most of our students are bilingual and this has a tremendous effect on the performance in the English tests."

Phil Green, Bradford Council's Director of Education, said: "We will be working closely with Education Bradford to offer our full support to help schools achieve these targets."

Mark Pattison, Education Bradford managing director, said: "There is always a fine balance between setting challenging targets which genuinely motivate and engage people to improve and setting targets that are so high that people become demoralised."

The DfES defended its figures, saying it wants to raise standards for children across the country and pledged £192 million to improve literacy and numeracy.

A spokesman said: "Targets are about improving children's education and making sure they are able to reach their potential.

"We are committed to providing primary schools with the support they need to achieve these targets."

But Ian Murch, of the Bradford branch of the National Union of Teachers - which is also encouraging members to reject the targets - criticised the Government.

"The target system is a nonsense if the Government does not take notice of professionals involved," he said. "Teachers will be blamed for not achieving targets which were not feasible.

"There is pressure to put all resources into one subject which can damage children's overall education. It is counterproductive. The children get turned off school and become hostile to learning."