I heard one community leader state on Radio 4 that the two main groups are completely ignorant of each other.

Ignorance, with its attendant mistrust and defensiveness, is the direct result of segregation, whether by sex, race or religion. For me “comprehensive” means “all-inclusive.”

According to Neil Hayden MP, (TES, July 6), church schools do serve the whole community; but if, as in the UK, only 10 per cent of that community are churchgoers how is it “serving” the 90 per cent majority? This issue now causes me particular distress as, far from serving the area where I live, the local church secondary schools refuse to allow my child to attend unless (and I find the hypocrisy abhorrent) I agree to attend Sunday church services. The majority of parents here do go through this farce and the church accepts this.

I am also angered by the fact that, although as a taxpayer I am funding 90 per cent of these schools’ budgets, my family is barred from attending them. But then, if this is an example of the “morality” on offer in a church school, I will definitely look elsewhere for the next stage of my son’s education.

I ask Ms Morris to think again before taking such a dangerously retrograde step.

Gillian Lee

2 Squires Close

Hoghton, Preston

Lancashire