Examiners in purdah at teachers’ training days

SIR – Sir Anthony Seldon (Comment, August 29) is absolutely right that senior examiners should not prepare their own students for the exam papers they have helped to set.

I have been a head of department in a secondary school for several years, and at the same time a principal examiner with a major exam board.

Professionalism would hopefully have prevented me from saying anything to benefit my students unfairly, but far more worrying would have been the constant fear of saying anything at all that would give them an advantage. Hence, I have always used a different exam board.

However, I do take issue with Sir Anthony’s support for the recent regulations that prevent senior examiners from leading training days for teachers in England.

This rule change came about after it came to light that some senior examiners said rather too much about forthcoming papers to teachers at these meetings. Principal examiners at these training days cannot now be questioned, praised or criticised by teachers with regard to papers, marking schemes or the standard of marking on the previous year’s papers.

This is a shame and it takes away some of the transparency that should exist in the examination system. Robert Nutter

Datchet, Berkshire

SIR – The trouble at Eton and Winchester will have surprised few.

Pupils, schools and teachers are under inescapable pressure to succeed and improve, and the unrelenting focus on testing, examination results and league tables is detrimental to high-quality teaching and learning. Charles Janz

London SW14