Ofsted’s obsession with memory as the key to children’s learning and as a measure of the effectiveness of a school’s curriculum is misplaced (“Ofsted’s ‘pop’ quiz tests are unfair to schools, say heads”, News). Learning is more than recall and everyone’s recall is patchy. If tested themselves, how many inspectors could remember what they were told a year or two before on a previous inspection? If inspectors can’t remember, why should they expect learners, especially young children, to? The chief inspector should ponder the wisdom in the old adage, education is what remains after you’ve forgotten what you learned in school.
Professor Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria
The report by the head of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman, on the serious delays in young children’s development as a result of the lockdown periods is hardly surprising in view of the fact that the Labour government’s inspired provision and policy of setting up Sure Start centres in 1999 has been scuppered by Tory governments cutting the funding by two-thirds since 2010. By the onset of the Covid lockdowns, more than 500 centres had been closed.
