Marj Adams’s contribution to the current debate on streaming reminds me that I wrote a personal letter to her after her article on discipline (“Talking out of turn drives us up the wall”, TESS, June 3), suggesting that she visit some schools where the Critical Skills Programme was being used to see for herself how it provides a wide range of powerful tools to promote good behaviour and high-quality learning.
I also invited her to join one of our training institutes. Sadly, Marj did not reply. Had she taken advantage of my offer, I doubt whether she would have felt able to write in such a disparaging fashion about those, like myself, who believe that streaming and setting are entirely peripheral to the fundamental issue of improving the quality of children’s educational experiences.
Colin Weatherley Critical Skills Programme manager (Scotland)
