I enjoyed Melissa Denes’ wide-ranging piece on private schools (“What are private schools really selling?”, 10 November). However, it misrepresents the racial diversity of the sector. It uses Katharine Birbalsingh’s views on the “wokeness” of private schools – along with the fact that a school Denes visited had few black children or staff – to portray diversity initiatives as inauthentic. But private education has a higher proportion of ethnic-minority pupils (38.5 per cent) than state schools (35 per cent). Part of private schools’ raison d’être is to preserve class divides. But the story on race is not so simple. Ethnic-minority parents are increasingly seeing private schools as a way for their children to succeed. Labour should examine this, rather than pretend it isn’t happening.
Dan Johnson, London SE27
[See also: Letter of the week: Starmer’s struggle]
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