I always enjoy the comment pieces by John Greenlees, and none more so than his analysis of rural schools (21 September). He is spot-on about the brilliance of smaller schools. As an ex-pupil of a school with 50 or so pupils, I can vouch for their excellence.

It is disappointing that models for secondary education now seem to involve schools with 500 or more pupils and all the problems which that entails for numerous pupils and their parents. Plans for smaller secondaries are now routinely dismissed as being unviable because of the “absence of economies of scale” and the existence of rigid subject boundaries which discourage secondary teachers from teaching more than one or two subjects. Integrated studies, more flexible working and smaller secondaries deserve our consideration.

James Mackenzie, Ayr Road, Prestwick.