This week, delegates at the National Association of Head Teachers’ conference in Harrogate voted overwhelmingly in favour of refusing to co-operate with a compulsory new test of 11-year-olds’ spelling, grammar and punctuation, set to be introduced next year.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT, warned that headteachers would also refuse to cooperate on a new reading test for six-year-olds next summer if there was any attempt to publish school-by-school results.

A good level of reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation are literate necessities, even in today's world of Twitter and Facebook.

It is quite shocking that any head teacher should adopt such a reactionary, anti-educational boycott.

I hope parents across the country will react accordingly if their school behaves in such a way.

CLLR TONY WOODCOCK Civic Centre, Poole