Brighton and Hove City Council's director of schools, David Hawker, has got himself into a right mess over his department's botched merger of Goldstone Junior and Knoll Infant schools. He paints himself - entirely unconvincingly - as a forlorn victim of circumstance in this farce (Letters, June 19). The quality of his thinking is reflected in his letter, which contains a 45-word sentence so mangled it defies understanding.

I suggest he comes along to one of Goldstone School's excellent literacy classes for help.

As far as I can understand him, he is admitting, for the first time, to having made a mistake over the merger of our schools. We parents agree but are troubled he has chosen to explain himself first in The Argus rather than to parents, teachers and governors. If he believes he should have de-merged the schools when things first started to fall apart, he ought to have told us. This is the first time he has put such an idea on the table and his recent report on the failed merger rejected any such option.

Mr Hawker's letter only adds to the confusion that continues to ooze from his department.

-Tom Cutler, Goldstone Parents' Action Committee, Hove