I sat down to enjoy the last TES and was enraged and upset to see an item in the “News at a glance” section titled “1 in 6 heads snubs new teacher assessments” (23 December). What a narrow-minded piece with a statistic that does not justify the headline.

It would have been more appropriate to have put that 83 per cent of heads support the new teacher assessments. On such an important issue, there was no chance to look into why 17 per cent of heads have asked for externally marked tests. In a heavily scrutinised system, many of those heads would have opted for an external system because of an impending Ofsted visit.

Many of us who stood firm on the testing issue are delighted that the system is changing, and I look forward to 2013 when we will report a level based on writing across a period of time and not a narrow system with all its faults well recognised by all.

Barry Read, Headteacher, RJ Mitchell Primary School, Essex.