When is this country going to come to its senses and realise that you will never run a successful community on academic qualifications?

I read in last Friday’s Oxford Mail that an after-school club had been warned by Ofsted that its staff did not hold Early Years Foundation qualification certificates.

How stupid is this? Here is a club which the inspectors are saying is doing a good job, yet, in the next breath, are condemning for not holding a piece of paper.

Is it not more important that the children are there enjoying themselves while learning?

After all, it is an after-school club so it should not be run on a strict classroom criteria.

On another subject, I have learned of one county school which is in the process of discontinuing the practise of allowing children to attend other schools for one day a week to study subjects at a higher level than their present school caters for – or, in some cases, does not have the facilities for.

Where will this leave more practically-minded, but less-academic children? On the scrap heap, probably.

Who is going to do the labouring needed to keep this country going if we give our children the feeling that they are a failure if they are not academically-minded?

I suppose we should encourage people from overseas to come over to do these types of jobs, and leave our youngsters on the dole L Howse, Hendon Place, Bicester