One lesson in any new “life skills” curriculum (Report, 4 November) should be on teaching school leavers about HMRC and taxation of their future personal earnings. As an employer, I regularly find comprehension of how PAYE, national insurance, tax codes and student loans are calculated is minimal. An understanding of what P6, P9, P60, P45 and P85 forms are for would help students transition into the world of employment. William Alexander Sevenoaks, Kent

Unlike Liz Thompson (Letters, 6 November), I went to a girls’ secondary modern school. We had a domestic science teacher, but not a science teacher. We were told: “You will end up sticking eyes in bendy toys.” I trained as a shorthand typist, studied for A-levels and a diploma in evening classes, and graduated from university aged 31. I didn’t get a “rich husband”, but did achieve a PGCE. Teaching would have been a “good job” if it hadn’t been for Margaret Thatcher’s school budgets policy, which resulted in privatisation of supply work and lower pay. I can still cook though. Janette Ward Tarrington, Herefordshire

At my secondary modern school in the 1950s, girls and boys shared most curriculum subjects, albeit with some noticeable exceptions: the girls did home economics and French, whereas the boys did technical drawing and algebra. It was explained to us that we boys needed algebra because we would be engineers and it would help us in the construction of bridges. Phil Rhoden Low Habberley, Worcestershire

I entered a grammar school in 1959. Before the start of my first term, parents were contacted to vote on whether to spend money on improving the school kitchens or providing domestic science education. The vote went to the former. Alyson Elliman Carshalton Beeches, London