I read your editorial of October 2 (“Can the Tories steer FE out of choppy waters?”) with interest and would echo your desire for preserving autonomy and minimising central control.

I work in partnership with our local colleges and support your positive description that it’s “full of leaders with vision and energy, backed by effective management and founded upon a professional and dedicated workforce”.

But I do feel that in making a number of very valid points you allow your high regard for the FE sector to carry you away a little when you say that “further education is the most dynamic part of our education system”.

As I’ve indicated above, I have a high regard for my FE partners. But I would strongly assert that the school sector, both primary and secondary, also contains “leaders with vision and energy, backed by effective management and founded upon a professional and dedicated workforce”.

J Hughes, Headteacher, The English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College, Hartlepool.