These creatures are seemingly manacled to folders, videos, CD-Roms and plastic boxes relating to their particular subspecies. They all chant the same mantra: “We are here to support you”. They are amiable with good intentions but I am far from convinced that consultant time is the answer to our educational ills.

Experience tells me that an annual dose of inspirational input has more effect on lifting teaching than reams of often repeated messages under different guises and delivered by different messengers.

Barbara Harker Bond’s Cottage Main Street Grove, Oxfordshire