Local benefits

STAN Grodynski (Letters, 6 January) suggests that when a local school closes (presumably north and west of the Great Glen) there is an immediate and an ongoing loss to the pupils and to the (usually small) community from which they migrate. So far, so good.

But it is an enormous leap to attempt to use this as an analogy for the impact of independent schools on the community. Mr Grodynski implies that all independent schools cater exclusively for boarders, who move away from home and (via Oxford and Cambridge, no less) go on to have unfulfilled lives away from their home communities.

Of the 30,000 or so pupils in independent Scottish schools, 89 per cent are day pupils. The four largest independent schools in our four main cities have almost 6,000 pupils – not one is a boarder. They live in, benefit from and contribute to their local communities.

ALAN R IRONS

Woodrow Road

Glasgow