What an interesting juxtaposition, placing Sir Michael Wilshaw’s piece, “Only the best: no excuses” on page 42, opposite Mike Kent’s, “The fightback begins” (8 June).

Sir Michael seeks to disarm us at the start of his article with his overused “teaching is a noble profession”, and then proceeds to berate us for our lack of nobility. He suggests that we are cheats who need minimal-notice inspections to keep us up to the mark, that we “need to recognise that standards need to be raised” and that we have a culture of making excuses.

Mr Kent, while generally and rightly supporting the need for inspection, reminds us that in practice inspections tend to lead to school management that is Ofsted-driven rather than child-centred, and that the current mechanism for inspection sometimes leads to devastating mistakes.

Barbara Curry, Educational consultant, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire.