Weighing in

SIR – The proposal that schoolchildren should be regularly weighed to prevent obesity (report, May 4) is nothing new.

During my nine years at Christ’s Hospital in the Fifties, we were regularly weighed, though I suspect it was for the opposite reason – to ensure that we were being fed just enough to maintain life.

For those on the edge, a slice of bread and butter could be bought in the afternoon for one old penny. David Johnstone

Northampton