May I reassure TES editor Gerard Kelly (“Forget the class warfare and the guilt”, January 29) that quietly, yet persistently, collaboration between maintained and independent schools is blossoming. Schools in the Girls’ Schools Association report a plethora of collaborative activities with local maintained schools. Model United Nations, masterclasses, Saturday and summer schools, reading groups, careers support and programmes for gifted students - these are just a sample.

The marked growth of these activities in recent years has nothing to do with the Charity Commission, which misguidedly fails to rate them, but everything to do with a growing understanding that, whether state or independent, many of us share a deep commitment to education beyond our own school walls and to pooling the best of what we have.

Gillian Low, President, Girls’ Schools Association, and head, The Lady Eleanor Holles School, Hampton, Middlesex.