Letter: Weekends at school

Sir: The boarding schools are trying to do an impossible job (letter, 9 January). Either children are sent there for essential reasons - expatriate parents, isolated homes or for specialist education - or they are sent as alternative child care for rich parents.

The weekends are painful, however the school handles them. Adolescents will not accept restrictions of the freedoms that 93 per cent of their peers enjoy; staff are naturally reluctant to organise activities in the time they have for their own families, and parents are often unable or unwilling to have the children home. The belief that boarding schools can still provide the consistent care and stability many parents seek, and remember, is sadly out of date.

Yours sincerely

SUSANNAH CLASEN

Pershore,

Worcestershire

9 January