My grandson is doing a degree at Thames Valley University, for which he has taken out a loan with the Student Loans Company. We understood that these would be low interest, or even interest-free, but he is being charged 4.8% interest: in his first year, this amounts to more than £360. This sum increases with each year as the debt grows. Is this how student loans are supposed to work? If so, the firm must be making a fortune.

Angela Shaw, Surrey

The Student Loans Company is a nondepartmental body, and, as such, is a non-profit-making organisation. It charges interest in order to ensure that the government does not lose money on the loans it has made. Interest is calculated on a yearly basis every September, according to the March Retail Price Index.

The good news is that the March RPI was the lowest of 2008, which means interest has fallen to 3.8%. The bad news is that I suspect many students and their parents thought, like you, that little interest would have to be paid. Anyone contemplating a loan, take note.

I have seen headlines recently saying that half of faith schools in the UK are breaching admission rules. Should these be tightened?

Tanya Hudson, Madrid

Last week the schools adjudicator, Sir Philip Hunter, reported that significant numbers of faith schools were in technical breach of the government’s school admissions code. This code is designed to stop schools favouring middle-class parents and to accept their fair share of more difficult children. Ministers, in other words, want the misery of unruly and unintelligent pupils to be spread.

The on-message adjudicator, who is encouraging parents to complain if they find schools selecting “nice children from nice backgrounds”, appears to agree. However, an influx of pupils who do not conform to a school’s ethos can cause a great deal of damage. Head teachers should be trusted to make decisions about which pupils are best for their schools – and the rules should be scrapped.

My four-year-old daughter attends a private nursery which, this half-term, began teaching Jolly Phonics. I am concerned that it is trying to teach too much too young and that this could have a detrimental effect. I understood that the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) recommended that phonics should not be taught until school reception year – is that correct?

Peter Moore, by e-mail

The EYFS expects most children to be taught phonics by the age of five. It, rightly, emphasises that younger children should have lots of opportunities to enjoy language – listening to nursery rhymes, for example, or making up alliterative jingles.

Preschool children should never be made to jump hurdles before they are ready, but they should always be challenged and stimulated by new learning. Many are ready to start mastering phonics – and, taught properly, they’ll find it great fun.

Chris Woodhead is a former chief inspector of schools and now chairman of the private schools group Cognita. If you have a question for him, please write to him c/o The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST or e-mail him, with your name and address, at education-questions@sunday-times.co.uk

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