Letter: Get out and fight for better education: that's the best thing you can do for your children

I WAS sorry to read that John Walsh feels compelled to send his daughter Sophie to a fee-paying school because "I live in Camberwell where the local schools are punishingly grotty".

As head teacher of a Camberwell school, I cannot let his remark go unchallenged. My school could well be one of his local schools. As far as I know Mr Walsh and his daughter have not visited the school, and I am quite certain that if he had talked to the parents of any of the many Camberwell children who have come here, he would not have been told that the school was "punishingly grotty". Quite the reverse.

Unless money is meaningless to him, a little research might have enabled Mr Walsh to secure a first-class primary education for his daughter and saved himself a significant sum. And Sophie could have walked to school when she was a little older.

The police often say that the fear of crime is as much of a problem as crime itself and usually greatly exaggerated. Might not the same thought apply to the insecure panic some middle-class parents bring to their children's education? It is never too late. Although we are, as usual, oversubscribed this year, Mr Walsh has only to ring for an appointment to visit us.

Pat Boyer

Dog Kennel Hill Primary

London SE22