Sir – Your celebration (Record number of school’s pupils get Oxbridge offers, January 13) of the 36 Magdalen College School pupils who have achieved Oxbridge offers is of course just and fair, but at a time when Education Secretary Michael Gove is mauling and disparaging state schools, both at primary and secondary level, it would also be fair and just to celebrate Oxfordshire’s state sixth forms.

If I may speak as a parent of pupils at Cherwell School, it is my understanding that this academic year, 19 Cherwellians have gained Oxbridge offers, of which my second son, Tom Pryce, is one, with an offer from King’s College, Cambridge, for theology and religious studies, entry 2011. His older brother, Huw, a Cherwell alumnus, is in his third year of a four-year master of computer science degree at Keble College, Oxford.

I say this not just from parental vanity and swollen pride, but in recognition of the education which is on offer at Cherwell and Oxfordshire’s other state schools; and at state schools up and down the land.

Nor should we forget the many other universities from which state school pupils are now receiving offers, and Magdalen pupils too.

So bravo Magdalen! And bravissimo the frequently maligned state sector, in which 93 per cent of pupils are being educated.

Bruce Ross-Smith, Headington