The Government has scored a spectacular own goal with its publication of the so-called “independent” review of the primary curriculum and the report of the so-called “expert” group on assessment.

The review led by Sir Jim Rose (which is ingenuously silent about the implications of testing) and the assessment report (which intensifies rather than alleviates the malign effects of testing) will reinforce professional perceptions that “experts” have been brought in yet again to give the Government what it wants, not what it needs.

Professor Colin Richards, Spark Bridge, Cumbria.