Good news for all English as an additional language (EAL) children in surpassing native speakers in GCSE results (“Speaking English as a second language holds pupils back no longer”, 17 February), but surely a wake-up and shake-up for the rest.

Here in Spain, thousands of children for whom English is their second language succeed in their (international) GCSEs because of teachers’ careful attention to language when teaching their subject. In these schools, EAL cannot be sidelined in a support department. It has to be a school-wide policy put into practice.

Patricia Tarrant Brown, Consultant and ex-head of bilingual schools, Valencia, Spain.