Letter: Top schools remain unsung

Your list of the top 100 schools (16 November) is a disgrace. Far from being the "top" schools, these are institutions which select their students or which exist in such favoured areas that the intake is as good as selective.

The real top schools are those which bring learning to children who are neither motivated nor favoured and where parental or community support is often lacking. It is here that you will find the top teachers, and it is they who are lifting the aspirations and expectations of the majority of young people. Your sad definition of what constitutes the "top" in education only serves to reinforce misguided perceptions of what truly constitutes excellence in education.

D A Howard

Ferndown Upper School, Dorset