A renowned children’s author has used a piece of writing to highlight the joys of language English and the dangers of testing children too soon.

David Almond, author of the fantasy novel Skellig, has published the text, which says that early testing puts children in danger of “falling out of love” with language and “falling out of love” with themselves.

Children’s laureate and illustrator Chris Riddell was inspired to illustrate Mr Almond’s words and publish them on his blog.

“I’m concerned about Sats,” Mr Riddell said. “I think there is that sense in which creativity is seen as an addition to the curriculum, rather than something that a part of it, and a culture of testing at an early age causes a lot of unnecessary tension and problems for both teachers and pupils.”

Here, we have been given permission to reproduce his post:

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