Emrys Batchelor (TES, September 27) rightly asks why teachers do not prepare themselves to meet Office for Standards in Education inspectors on equal terms, and a large part of the answer is this.
Education is grossly under-funded, giving rise to under-staffed, oversized classes, inadequate provision and substandard accommodation. That being so, even very good teachers turn up daily knowing that they cannot do their best, while OFSTED inspectors turn up quadrennially to fault them for it.
The sad fact is that OFSTED is being used not to answer the question “what do good teachers need to do better?” but to underpin the Government line that only teachers (and their trainers) stand between the national curriculum and the great leap forward.
DR COLIN BUTLER Senior English master Borden Grammar School Sittingbourne, Kent
