Interesting that the news that “non-teachers” can be primary heads is met with such derision by colleagues (Letters, April 16).

Much more hilarious to some of us is the prospect of school budgets being managed by “non-accountants”, huge numbers of professional education staff being managed by “non-human resource professionals” and public buildings being managed and developed by “non-architects”.

A public service that continues to refer to a huge portion of its workforce as “non” anything displays a defensive and egotistical tendency that school leaders perpetuate at their peril.

There are good headteachers and poor headteachers - their teaching qualifications may explain their route to headship but it is of no influence over their success in managing the school as an organisation.

The success of our best headteachers is as a result of qualities beyond their teaching qualifications, and believe it or not - threatening though it may sound - those qualities can and do exist in that rather large portion of the UK population who are eligible to call themselves “non-teachers”.

Zephanie Thompson, Northumberland.