Professor Robin Alexander tells Polly Curtis of the damage caused by too much testing and a narrow focus on literacy and numeracy

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The report says schools should be freed of Sats and league tables to allow them to make more decisions about what and how they teach.

The compulsory daily act of worship should be reviewed and a curriculum that values knowledge and understanding as well as basic skills should be brought in, it says.

The review finds:

• Children are losing out on a broad, balanced and rich curriculum with art, music, drama, history and geography the biggest casualties.

• The curriculum, and crucially English and maths, have been "politicised".

• The focus on literacy and numeracy in the run-up to national tests has "squeezed out" other areas of learning.

• The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which sets the curriculum, have been excessively prescriptive, "micro-managing" schools.

The review accuses the government of attempting to control what happens in every classroom in England, leading to an excessive focus on literacy and numeracy in an "overt politicisation" of children's lives. Despite this too many children still leave primary school having failed to master the 3Rs.

Sats have also narrowed the scope of what is taught in schools, it claims, concluding: "The problem of the curriculum is inseparable from the problem of assessment and testing."

The DCSF said the report would be considered by Sir Jim Rose, who has been commissioned to review the curriculum concentrating on "workable recommendations for change... in order to give teachers more freedom and flexibility".

"Ed Balls [schools secretary] has made it clear that he wants it to be the most fundamental review of the primary curriculum for a decade," the DCSF added. "Sir Jim will publish his findings later this year."