Why it’s vital to get primary education right

SIR – Janet Daley (Comment, August 14) is correct that education must help all children be the best they can.

To that end, it is vital that they are taught literacy and numeracy effectively at primary school.

This has not happened for decades, meaning that only children whose parents can teach them or pay for tuition have the opportunity to realise their full potential at secondary school.

Primary schools must focus on teaching the common core of English and maths if children are to thrive in the later stages of their education. Michelle Paul Orpington, Kent

SIR – The Government should lift the ban on grammar schools but stop the opt-in 11-plus and the coaching that goes with it.

Instead, in every school in Britain, Key Stage 2 results and teacher assessments should be used to identify the 25 per cent who would benefit most from a grammar school education. Councillor Mike Whiting (Con) Sittingbourne, Kent SIR – Esme Winch (Comment, August 15) highlights the benefits of apprenticeships.

However, she is wrong to suggest that University Technical Colleges – which my organisation promotes and sustains – haven’t worked. She overlooks their early success in providing high-quality technical education for pupils between the ages of 14 and 19. In 2015, 24 per cent of our leavers started apprenticeships, compared with 8.5 per cent nationally.

UTCs work closely with employers, who say that our students are often much more employable than those from other schools. The Royal Navy has started a special apprenticeship programme targeted at UTC students, which will produce qualified marine engineers two or three years quicker than it would with students joining from mainstream schools.

Britain desperately needs to increase the skills of its workforce. UTCs are an ideal way of doing this. I urge young people who are interested in a technical career to visit one and see for themselves. Charles Parker CEO, Baker Dearing Educational Trust London SW1