Dear Lord Hall,
We would like to object most strongly to your proposal to close down the Victoria Derbyshire Show. We are a coalition of parents and professionals campaigning against an education system that penalises children from less advantaged backgrounds. The show was one of the few to highlight how much the obsession with high stakes testing in primary schools writes off so many less privileged students as failures.
Every year around a third of eleven-year-olds in effect fail SATs in Year 6. Research repeatedly shows that children from poorer homes, with special needs or who speak English as an additional language are overrepresented in this group. The Victoria Derbyshire Show, with its diverse audience profile, is rare in its ability to reach out to these families and explain to them the unfairness of the current primary education system.
We would hate to think that your decision is the sort made by a privileged elite, detached from the experience of parents and carers struggling in a society that is so often stacked against them from the get-go. We would urge you most strongly to change your mind and save the show from being scrapped.
Yours Sincerely,
The More than a Score coalition