NOW I am getting cross. Mr Gove rings up Melinda Tilley to congratulate her on the Reading Campaign.

We at Assisted Reading for Children (ARCh) have been working with Key Stage One students for many years and as I pointed out in a previous letter, are partly responsible for the latest improvements in reading ability at this key stage, as published earlier this year – the Reading Campaign had not started to have its effect, one which will not be evident for many years.

The £600,000 would have been better invested with ARCh as it has all the contacts with county schools, a fully tried and tested training programme backed up by experienced staff and so many books and games.

We currently have around 200 volunteers in schools and could place more if we had the funding.

It just seems a waste of resources to replicate an existing and well-tested training and placement programme built up over many years.

Politics should be kept out of these youngsters’ lives.

Better I say to have discovered that Melinda Tilley and Mr Gove had been volunteering for many years in primary schools.

I can dream, I suppose, but we will of course continue with our work and enjoy the company of these children and help them on their way to enjoying much of what life enhanced by education has to offer.

JIM YOUNG, Blythe Place, Bicester