IN THE feature “Our schools and children are being shortchanged”, John Howson almost exclusively concentrates on funding with the only spending exception being school meals.

Mr Howson does not mention how the money, when received, should be spent or how it could, for example, improve infant literacy outcomes.

He says the pupil premium is used to develop pupils learning – but how?

Does he know the reasons for classroom infant literacy failure and how more money would sort it out?

Calling for funding without appearing to know what the spending is for does not make sense.

The money should be spent on infant classroom research to prove the massive loss of infant literacy hours actually received by pupils since Prof Howson was a five-year-old, thus creating a massive dependency on home teaching.

S. NICHOLSON
Campbell Road, Oxford