Most headteachers know that target-setting is a farce. Each year a county inspector calls expecting your school targets. These are then compared with his predictions on his laptop computer and fed back to county hall for dissection. Cornwall may well have refused to set government-imposed targets which were deemed unattainable, but schools were still expected to set unattainable targets under a cloak of “negotiation”.

I still fail to understand how school targets help to improve children’s learning.nbsp; Surely the wisdom is that any form of target or goal achievement is a matter to be negotiated at grassroots level between the teacher, child and parent? After all, if teachers are professional people able to make decisions, think through processes and work creatively in the widest possible sense then imposed targets negate that professional creativity that is so special amongst teachers.

Richard Carter
Falmouth