The standards, which every trainee must meet if they are to be allowed to teach in state schools, require them to “plan opportunities to contribute to pupils’ personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development”, and to “use teaching methods which sustain the momentum of pupils’ work and keep all pupils engaged - through stimulating intellectual curiosity, communicating enthusiasm for the subject being taught, fostering pupils’ enthusiasm and maintaining pupils’ motivation; (and through) exploiting opportunities to contribute to the quality of pupils’ wider educational development, including their personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development”.

As for not including anything on values, the QTS standards are clear that trainees must be “committed to ensuring that every pupil is given the opportunity to achieve their potential and meet the high expectations set for them”.

Finally, I agree with Alison Hatt (Letters, July 17) that The TES is to be commended for its interest in anti-racist issues, and I can reassure her that she is right to suspect that we were misquoted on July 3.

No one said we were not prepared to prescribe anti-racist work on the curriculum. Indeed the QTS standards and initial teacher training national curricula stress the multi-lingual and multicultural dimensions and prescribe that trainees are taught to set high expectations for all pupils. These should be set notwithstanding individual differences including gender, and cultural and linguistic backgrounds, to deal effectively with bullying and its causes - and that must include racial harassment and a working knowledge and understanding of race relations legislation.

The truth of the matter is that in every aspect of our work we have taken a strong stand on racism and multi-culturalism, backed up by clear requirements, and we shall continue to develop that work and monitor the results.

Anthea Millett Chief executive Teacher Training Agency Portland House, London SW1