Your photograph in Hilary Steedman’s recent article contains an interesting inaccuracy. Ian Thistlethwaite is not a French student, but many years ago was a student at the Anglo European School in Essex. He did however, gain the International Baccalaureate and he long ago successfully completed university, as did his A-Level colleagues.

Naturally, as the first state school to offer the IB we support the baccalaureate, but we are also aware that the drop-out rate at university of our A-Level students is much lower than their French counterparts. While many of us share an anxiety about Curriculum 2000 and our own IB students are free of this turmoil, we do not always need to assume that we are doing everything wrong.

Bob Reed
Headteacher,
Anglo European School,
Ingatestone,
Essex