Sir – Dr Daniel Emlyn Jones (Letters, February 17) clearly believes the old private school myth that the state schools are rife with bullying and that only private education can bestow confidence.
My three daughters have had an excellent education at Cherwell School over the last 20 years — they and their peers are successful, confident and thoroughly nice young people.
Yes, there is the odd incident of bullying, there will be in any school, public or private, but it is dealt with swiftly and competently.
Moreover, Cherwell has an excellent mentoring system whereby older students befriend and help troubled younger students thereby gaining a perspective on real life, which includes all sorts of people, not just those whose parents can afford to pay for small classes and private tutoring.
From what I have seen I would say many private school pupils display arrogance rather than confidence and as for quibbling over whether gaining an Oxbridge place, as opposed to a place at other universities, is a good a yardstick of a successful education!
Well, the statistics indicate no drop-off in private school applications to Oxbridge and private school pupils are specially coached so as to have an advantage with their applications, so presumably the majority would not agree with your correspondent’s argument.
Ann Furtado, Oxford
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