Nick Clegg, the UK’s deputy prime minister, and the Department for Education see the preparation of children to become “secondary ready” as the “single most important outcome” of primary education (“National rankings proposed for 11-year-olds”, 19 July).

But why does the achievement of spurious “readiness” apply only to primary schools? Shouldn’t secondary schools be “ready” to take on children from wherever they are in their educational journey, provided that their sense of themselves as competent learners hasn’t been irrevocably damaged by insensitive testing and decile-type labelling?

Colin Richards, Spark Bridge, Cumbria.