Oh, dear. Wellington College’s headmaster Anthony Seldon is commenting on the public sector again. It seems he wants some families to pay for state school education, and has also managed to throw into the discussion his belief in the huge gap between state and private schools (see news.tesconnect.com).

He has probably not read - or wanted to read - the University of Warwick research stating that students from state schools are more likely to achieve good degrees. Since students at prestigious private schools are often force-fed exam material and are not necessarily encouraged to think for themselves, they lose out once they get to university.

What I would really like to see is staff at private schools with charitable status being forced to spend teaching time in state schools to justify that status. I think it would show that private schools do not have “better” teachers, merely ones with higher academic, rather than educational, qualifications.

Mike Rath, Barnstaple, Devon.