Lesson for the archbishop

IN THE same issue of the Mail where Archbishop Justin Welby said grammar schools fuel privilege was the article about inspirational maths teacher David Crosby.

Working in a failing school in Liverpool, he helped 16-year- old Stephen Geddes from a council house get a place at Eton.

Archbishop Welby please note! Rather than bringing grammar schools down to the level of failing schools, why doesn’t he suggest that with wonderful teachers we should be able to bring failing schools up to the level of grammar schools?

If we continue to dumb down, no one will have the chance to do well in life. I should know: I am a grammar school pupil and Christian who started work at 16 and succeeded.

Mrs S. FOOKS, Sherborne, Dorset. PLAUDITS for Eton scholarship boy Stephen Geddes’s success should go to his parents, school and, of course, the teenager himself, but it is also clear his teacher David Crosby is a man of outstanding quality.

I am indebted to a number of teachers of the same temperament from my schooldays, but sadly the advent of militant unionism, along with policymakers in Whitehall, drove the good teachers from the profession.

Curriculum standards were lowered to accommodate poorer teachers rather than student attainment.

F. McMANUS, Leeds.