Your correspondent Raymond Soltysek (Letters, October 16) says he is not an expert (in that very field in which he trains people!), but does he claim to be a saint? It seems to me that, in phrases such as “the beatingpunishment of children”, he is passing judgment on anyone who feels a need to reinforce discipline against disruptive pupils.

Does anyone remember a recommendation in the McCrone report where teacher trainers should spend some time in the classroom? Unfortunately, nothing has come of this excellent suggestion. If Mr Soltysek were to work two days a week in our department, perhaps he would be able to show us how to handle some of our worst classes. Since, according to him, a good way to judge a great school is by how few exclusions there are, we would be very grateful if he joined our staff to show us just what we’re doing wrong.

No amount of A Curriculum for ExcellenceHow Good Is Our School and so on works with these disruptive, abusive and sometimes violent pupils, and the pressure not to exclude them means the majority who want to learn suffer as a result. Such is the picture of how wonderful schools are today.

I would love to see Mr Soltysek and those who think like him teaching in a school and regret that pupils are being denied their expertise. Whoops, there’s that word again.

Name and address supplied.