Primary schools needs support not ‘initiatives’

YOUR Editorial comment, suggesting that many schools will fail the Gove test due to inadequate primary schools failing to produce pupils with adequate literacy skills, warrants a vigorous response (Yorkshire Post, June 16).

Many primary schools and teachers, past and present, will share my view that they are suffering from “initiative fatigue”.

Not surprisingly, too many initiatives have produced negligible results. Keeping beating the donkey doesn’t improve its performance.

The decline in literary skills nationally is a serious concern but responsibility cannot wholly be placed on schools; many other factors are at work, mainly the media, which we cannot discount.

Michael Gove would receive a standing ovation if he, unlike many of his predecessors, acknowledged the crucial importance of the primary stage of education, including pre-school.

It is the foundation of all that follows and literacy must be the cornerstone and the focus of attention and support. The primary stage has suffered too much over the last few decades from an excess of intervention by governments who seem to totally disregard the professionalism and expertise of so many of our dedicated teachers who will deliver amazing results if given the support they deserve.

The programme to change many schools into academies, at some unspecified cost, will not of itself do anything to address the underlying problems in primary education.