CESEW Chief Executive Oona Stannard today sent this letter to the Catholic Herald:

Dear Sir,

Simon Caldwell’s article ‘Church is alarmed by new code for teachers’ (6 March 2009) failed to give a balanced representation of the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales’ response to the GTCE Draft Code of Conduct and Practice.

While it is true that we expressed some concern about Principle 4 of the code in particular, our impressions of the Code were generally positive – something that the article failed to convey.  Furthermore, the implication that we had suggested the Code would force large numbers of teachers out of the profession is, at the very least, disingenuous.

The CES remains committed to working in cooperation with the General Teaching Council to design a fair and transparent code that will serve the teaching profession and society as a whole.  I would ask that you print our original response in full as a matter of urgency, for clarification.

I request a response to this letter.

Yours sincerely