Sir - As a governor of two schools there are four simple questions that I would dearly like to be able to ask the Schools Secretary in relation to your report that Schools that miss targets could be shut (June 20).

As there could never be a system in which 100 per cent of 16-year-old pupils achieved five A-C grades at GCSE why has 30 per cent been selected as the 'pass rate' for an individual school (why not 42 per cent etc.)?

Given that every secondary school receives individual pupils at transfer with significantly different levels of attainment why, particularly in the context of 'Every Child Mattering', isn't the (readily available) measure of the progress of individuals used as a better source of judgement about a school?

What is the difference between the Schools Secretary's judgement on the quality of the '638 failing secondary schools' and Ofsted's judgement that most of these same schools are performing as 'satisfactory or better'?

Are there any systems that employ people where there is a 100 per cent competency rate (what drawbacks might there be anyway in such a system) and why does he choose to undermine trust in the professionals who actually do their best, day in and day out, to address the variations in performance which, of course, will always be with us?

Frank Newhofer, Oxford