Sir – I was somewhat mystified by your article (January 6) on the arrival of Ms Felicity Lusk at Abingdon School.

The previous headmaster, Mark Turner, was hailed by the Tatler as the independent schools headmaster of the academic year 2009/2010. During his seven years in office, he made none of these changes. The school was inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate during April 2005. The inspection report confirmed the conclusions of the 1999 inspection with the opening statement, ‘This high achieving school has an excellent balance in the education it provides, through an outstanding and wide ranging curriculum programme and the high academic attainment, which enables boys to win places at highly selective universities’.

The issue of Saturday morning school is not new and I was one of a number of staff who advocated removing it many years ago.

At that time the arguments for retaining it held sway and it is difficult to see what has changed in the interim. Still it’s nice to know that we got it right at that time!

The 55-minute lesson suits some subjects and not others.

Given those ISI reports mentioned earlier, one is bound to conclude that the 35-minute lesson served Abingdon rather well. Perhaps we shall see the school climb up the league tables following the introduction of the new teaching regime.

The one part of your article which did make me smile was the line ‘The decision was taken after extensive consultation, over a number of years’. I wonder with whom that consultation took place.

My 31 years at Abingdon were characterized by an almost complete lack of consultation, or, if that is overstepping the mark, a failure by senior management to listen to staff.

The question one is tempted to ask is: are these changes being made for the benefit of the educational and pastoral development of Abingdon boys, or to afford some individuals headlines and/or additional material for their curriculum vitae?

Dr Patrick Wilmore, Wantage