Preparing children for the real world
Your correspondent Mr J O’Sullivan (TES January 26) would like to see more children benefiting from a public school education because of the (by implication) superior preparation for life such schools offer children and young people. I have to challenge this claim. For most adults, living and working in the real world involves interacting every day with people from different social backgrounds, different levels of income and of educational attainment. Young people segregated from their communities in selective fee-paying schools are plainly not getting the sort of preparation for adult life in today’s diverse society which is the daily experience of their counterparts in socially inclusive schools in the state sector.
There are plenty of the latter in Mr O’Sullivan‘s Wandsworth neighbourhood including at least two primary schools with beacon status, one beacon comprehensive and several other highly regarded comprehensive schools whose academic results are pretty impressive into the bargain.
Helen Haddon
18 Thurleigh Road
London
SW12 8UGnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;
