Not content with irritating every head teacher in the country with his `Could do Better’ letter, David Miliband continues to dig himself into a hole.

Take a look on page 10 ofnbsp;last week’snbsp;TES (March 7). Now read The AESOPP initiative advertisement at the bottom of the page. It includes another piece of DM pomposity which roughly says, “Schools need . . . rigorous targets. . . which bear directlynbsp;on... pupil achievement . . . and which demands more from experienced teachers.” Surely he can’t mean this. There isn’t a scrap of evidence that schools need any such thing.

In the same advertisement, John Bedford from Manchester’s Management Support Services seems equally deluded. He thinks schools need to develop robust performance management systems with links to performance related pay. Is it possible that his organisation is somehow bound up with the provision of these performance management systems? He obviously inhabits the same bubble of misconception as David Miliband, otherwise he would know that teachers need performance related pay and more robust targets like a hole in the head.
Michael Todd
Yorknbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;