Christine Gilbert says that monitoring of schools should be done by schools not the government, and we should have “the profession supporting the profession” (”‘It is hard to see that there can be any turning back’”, 4 May). I would refer her to Lord of the Flies, as this smacks of being a bullies’ charter. At least when most schools were monitored by their local authority, there were fewer opportunities for mismanagement, coercion and bullying (or should that be “payment by results”), which is why teachers flee from the Conservatives’ flagship academies.

Ruth Elliott, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.