The new English primary curriculum, to be introduced from 2011, offers us a clear way to the top of the international league tables.

Under what that curriculum designates as “Essentials for Learning and Life” we could teach phonically simple Finnish to children in the UK, thereby dramatically improving test results in reading and writing.

English as an additional language could be left to fight its corner among the non-essentials, in the small proportion of curriculum time left after Finnish literacy and Finnish numeracy.

Professor Colin Richards, Spark Bridge, Cumbria.