Letter: School action zones

Sir: Most of the so-called initiatives which are proposed for education action zones ("Minister vows to shake up schools", 24 June), have been happening as a matter of course in my comprehensive school for some time.

We regularly organise special arts and sports events, we run homework clubs, staff have professional development, we run the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and have student mentors for the prevention of bullying.

We, like many other schools, have lost staffing and gained larger groups because we work in a county whose funding has been substantially lower than comparable counties through an unfathomable method of assessing financial need.

I suggest that Stephen Byers, the school standards minister, would do well to "present a fundamental challenge" to an unfair method of allocating funding which is doing far more to hold back the education system in Cambridgeshire than the "vested interests" he mysteriously mentions.

Along with many of my colleagues I rarely leave school before 6.30pm and often go in at weekends and in the holidays. We would be happy to have the opportunity to negotiate our pay and conditions, especially if Mr Byers could see his way to returning to us those negotiating rights.

CAROLYNN COOKE

Teacher/Governor, Impington Village College

Somersham, Cambridgeshire