AN 11-year-old schoolboy has written to the Prime Minister to highlight the problem of stress in the classroom.

Jack Coates, who goes to Abbey Park School in North Swindon, decided to pen his letter to Boris Johnson because he was already feeling exam pressure half way through his first year at secondary school.

He thinks the UK education system should be run along the same lines as in Finland where there are no standardised tests apart from a voluntary test at the end of secondary school.

Jack said: “It’s not just the students it’s the teachers who are stressed too. I’ve been reading in the news about depression rising and I think that’s because of the pressures in school.

“It’s all about doing well at school but they’re not thinking about after you have finished.

“I want something to change because jobs are constantly changing and evolving but our schools, the education system, it isn’t changing."

In his letter he wrote: “It is believed that our schooling has not changed since the industrial revolution. During the industrial revolution school was designed to train children to follow orders and be quiet, so that once they leave school they can work in factories.”

He told the Adver: “Finland has the best education in the world but the UK is seventh. Everything is better there, they’re smarter and they go to school less. I am happy with the school I go to, it’s not the school’s fault they’re just being told what to do but I think mental health should come first over education.

“They’re already telling us what it will be like in a couple of years when we do our exams. It makes me feel very worried.

“Personally I believe that children should be children and spend less time with doing homework to spend with family.”

His mum Carly Coates, 32, of Giles Road is a teaching assistant and was shocked when her son told her what he wanted to do.

She said: “It was quite a surprise he just got in the door and he told me about Finland and that has been engaging him a lot. But it’s more he wants to enlighten the fact that children’s mental health should come first but I felt really proud of him.

“He’s just started secondary school but every night he has homework. He excels but he feels the pressure of what is expected of him. He’s also worried about others who might be struggling at school and he feels that children should be allowed to be children for a bit longer.”