Letters | 6 April 2017

All-round education

Sir: While much of Ross Clark’s analysis of the direction that independent education has taken is spot on (‘A hard lesson is coming’, 1 April), he could not be more wrong on one issue. Many (or even most) parents who choose a private education for their children do not do so simply to achieve top academic outcomes: one look at the results league tables would disabuse him of this notion. What the average independent school does deliver is a rounded education (drama, sport, singing, D of E, CCF, debating and so on) with an emphasis on self-reliance, character and values, and competitive reward systems which acknowledge success rather than mediocrity.

If state schools matched these elements, they might genuinely signal the end of the road for the independent sector.
N.H. Eeles
Wiltshire

Private school myths

Sir: The average fee for a private day school is £13,500 a year; for half of schools the fees are less than that.