Ed Balls received a letter this week from 26 of the country’s leading scientists – including Richard Dawkins, Harry Kroto, John Sulston – warning of their concerns that the proposed new primary school science curriculum does not even mention evolution.

I was happy to add my name to the signatories. To omit evolution from the education of five- to 11-year-olds would be to miss a great opportunity. Children are often fascinated by fossils and wildlife. While many are too young to appreciate the concepts of “deep time” – that the Earth is some 4.6 thousand million years old – and the logical rigour of natural selection, they have powers of observation and a capacity to be engaged by the names and structures of organisms that put many adults to shame.

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