Hooray for Mike Kent’s common-sense column (“Content is key to gauging success”, 24 June). Of course it is harder to teach children from broken and dysfunctional homes.

Our school is in a disadvantaged area and the children have some awful problems outside school. More than half have additional educational needs, and a third speak English as an additional language. I am supposed to produce the same results as I used to get in a middle-class area where I taught the offspring of doctors, architects and bank managers. How can I do that? I can’t. Anyone with half a brain can see that.

Primary teacher, Name and address supplied.