The General Teaching Council for England did not - as anyone who actually attended its final meeting would testify - “slink away” (TES, 30 March). Along with dismay that England has now become the only country in the British Isles whose teachers are not considered capable of professional self-regulation, there was pride in what the GTC did achieve.

My own experience as an elected classroom teacher who was there at the start and finish of the GTC does not bear out your reporter’s assertion that we were “a target of derision”, despite the bilious pronouncements of one union’s leadership and the rants of Mr Angries on TES web forums. Your highlighting of “just 89 incompetency cases” implies that we were somehow at fault for there not being more. But the reason heads did not make more competence referrals was not because they thought it “pointless”, but because capability procedures were so complex and protracted. The new Teaching Agency will not attempt to deal with competence cases at all; whether this will better serve teachers and learners remains to be seen.

Andy Connell, Elected GTC member 2000-2004, 2008-2012.