Right, let’s stop lamenting and let Gillian know exactly how she can do that: * Fund schools in such a way that they are encouraged to keep on experienced staff rather than ease them out because they are “too expensive”; * Fund schools so that there is some equity in the amount each receives rather than inequalities between types of schools and different local education authorities; * Fund schools so that there are sufficient administrative assistants to ease the paperwork burden that is engulfing us; * Stop bashing teachers - she sweetly ignores everything the Government has done, along with their friends in the right-wing “think” tanks, to undermine the profession; * Provide statutory career breaks, secondments, paid study leave (remember the James report?) to refresh and remotivate teachers. I was fortunate to be among the last primary class teachers to have a paid secondment from the former Inner London Education Authority to study for an MA. I am convinced it kept me in the profession; * Abolish the Office for Standards in Education and substitute a genuinely supportive system that will enable schools to improve.

MARTIN FRANCIS 17 St John’s Avenue London NW10