Letter: Religious schools

Sir: I had to agree with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's article "Why my heart sank to see the opening of our first Sikh school" (2 December). I am a Jewish mother in an area highly populated with Jewish children where there is one junior (soon to be two) and one senior Jewish school.

These schools mean that local children who are not Jewish may never meet a Jewish child until they go to university. Being English and Jewish is something good that should be seen by all, not just our peers.

Jewishness comes from the home and from the community and bunching our children together in one school is not preparing them for the life they will be leading. However, do you want your child to be the only Jewish child in her year? The answer is no, so you end up sending your child to the Jewish school whether you think it has the best education or not.

Racism is still a big problem, but without a multi-cultural education for our children I think we will never move forward.

JOANNE GREEN

London E18