YEP Says (Jan 22): What do league tables matter to the pupils?

Unlikely.

Does it make a difference in terms of how that child views the school they attend, or whether they are inclined to try harder to help the school up its position in said tables?

No.

However, what does inspire a pupil to achieve, is the dedication, care and attention paid to them by those in their immediate sphere: their parents and their teachers.

And what most children will do, given the right encouragement, is their very best. Surely that, above all things ,is what matters.

It is not the pupil’s fault that successive governments have repeatedly moved the goal-posts when it comes to official targets.

It is not their fault that schools still in LEA control pursue different curricula to those academies and free schools outside the jurisdiction of local authorities, further undermining the merit of such tables.

And it is also not their fault that politicians of all persuasions cannot reach a policy consensus so teachers can plan for the long-term with some clarity of purpose.

Even though there will always be a cohort who claim that GCSEs have been dumbed down, which is clearly not the case, most pupils and schools are meeting the current benchmarks – and the improved results accrued in Leeds are of particular note.

Pupils are not professional footballers judged on results. Their futures are at stake and they are being let down by the own goals that arise from increasingly counter-productive political interference.