School of thought that helped me to succeed

The article by Peter Hitchens about how fanatical utopians made Britain less equal – by sabotaging the grammar schools that were the true pioneers of ‘levelling up’ – was so right. I went to one of the new secondary moderns where we were taught both vocational and academic subjects. At grammar school, I would have struggled but the secondary modern helped me to achieve success.

Sheila Neely, Nottingham

Peter Hitchens’s obsession with grammar schools is tiresome. He thinks that secondary moderns were successful – I can speak from experience, they were not.

We were treated as dunces, not only by our teachers but also by those who were lucky to attend the ‘holy grail’ of schools. Peter, no doubt, had a privileged education – so what right has he to talk about this divisive system?