I read with interest your editorial (“Today’s pupils come free range or battery farmed”, 10 February). Gerard Kelly is right that examination attainment should not be sacrificed on the altar of pedagogical experimentation.

It is quite wrong, though, to imply that schools must choose between teaching soft skills and academic achievement. Schools can do both and pupils need both to compete on a level playing field with the alumni of the independent schools you rightly praise.

I also take issue with characterising Kunskapsskolan’s methods as experimentation. Although our approach in its entirety might be new in the UK, many of our methods have been used individually by some outstanding British schools and we have 13 years of successful achievement in Sweden, where our schools educate more than 10,000 pupils.

Steve Bolingbroke, Managing director of Kunskapsskolan UK.