Education secretary Michael Gove has announced that school league tables will henceforth be based on students’ results from the first time they take an examination. This was a particularly ill-advised pronouncement. May I suggest that no notice be paid to it? In future, two sets of league tables may have to be published: one by Mr Gove and the other by school leaders themselves. Because tables by the latter will indicate what students actually achieved, they are more likely to prove useful to parents and others who need this information.

Sir Peter Newsam, Thornton Dale, North Yorkshire.