As a Scottish “missionary” working in the English system I have always been proud to tell my colleagues and students of the great Scottish tradition of exporting ideas and significant men and women, expert in many different fields, to the far ends of the earth. However, one education secretary Michael Gove has now caused me to dive for cover and to seek forgiveness for my fellow Scots’ abject failure to understand or listen to what our children need to be successes in the future.

To quote from Ernest Hemingway, “I misjudged you ... You’re not a moron. You’re only a case of arrested development” might seem like a cheap insult but it helps remove some of the guilt.

Jim Tague, Lesmahagow.