My 11 year old has been consistantly top of every subject he has been taught. His primary school teachers have identified his tallents and gifts and he has been selected by our education authority for severel short courses for giffted and tallented children.
Our rented house is in the catchment area of a nightmare secondary school where an asbo is considered a qualification. The nearest good school is five miles away. It has a catchment area of less than half a mile radius from the school where property is twice the price to rent or buy.

Four children in my sons primary class will get places at the good school next year. 1 had s.e.n. streamlining.
1 child had a sibbling who has just got in to the 6th form there. 2 had parents who bought property in the catchment area boasting that they will sell their "undersized" houses as soon as their not so bright children have secured a place at the school.
My son is guaranteed not to get a place at the school.
Bursary for Habs maybe?

J, London,

Janice Turner very perceptively expresses the concerns and priorities of educationists who come from working class and provincial backgrounds,
The idea of lotteries to allocate educational opportunity more widely is a policy of despair and should not be entertained. Her demand that there should be a centre of scholastic excellence to which every child has access is absolutely just and the shortcomings of the present system remind us that there should als be an equally prestigious centre of vocational excellence available.
The problem remains of the fair allocation of these opportunities. Fortunately a solution is emerging with the grouping of schools into consortiums, so that complete educational choice is available over the pooled resources of all the participating schools.It is the single exclusive school unit that is the obstacle to free curricular choice. The resources and standards of the consortiums are able to outstrip those of the best private schools.

David Yendley, Greater Manchester, England

Albert the Gnome: it ain't what you write, it's the way that you write it. And if my point was obvious, I'm afraid it clearly hadn't occurred to you.

I think we agree on the condition. What we do not agree on is the treatment. Justice is rarely well-served by chippiness.

Neil, Oxford,

I always read this columnist with interest and pleasure, but in this case am quite annoyed.
Yes, as a country we must do something to stop losing our intellectual capital in the form of bright children who don't get a good education - whether it's by opening new grammar schools, academies for excellence of parachuting them into the private system. I don't myself care how it's achieved, as long as it gets done, and fast.
However, any parent knows that evidence of brightness at 3 is no guarantee of brightness remaining at 7, or indeed 11. Children seem to switch on and off, and different bits of them seem to develop at different times and rates. So the Sutton Trust's findings do not prove anything to me.
I do also think that, in additon to schools, parents have a huge responsibility. Serious, dedicated parenting can overcome poor education, as can parental encouragement and ambition. Conversely, poor parenting can undo fantastic educational opportunities.

Amanda, London,

We did have 'acadamies of excellence' - they were called grammar schools and they helped to lift this son of a coal miner away from a life of working drudgery.

David, Grantham,

In Austrailia and the US, parental/guardian input and support are recognised as the key influences in academic sucess and provide assistance to encourage this behaviour.

Helping kids to do their homework and encouraging them learn has little to do with class, money or social status.

Ian, Cairo,

The Home Secretary, Jacquie Smith, received her basic education at a comprehensive school. Likewise, Yvette Cooper. Just thought I'd mention that! Mmmm!

Shirley Bowen, Blackpool, UK

I tried reading this article, I really did.

I'm sure it's a great article but that kangaroo in the centre of the screen keeps staring at me and putting me off.

John Brown, Glasgow, UK

So your son turns out to be thick and you accordingly send him to any old school because he isn t worth better, and likewise a run of the mill university, assuming he can find one he can get into. Reassured that he won t thereby be preventing any bright but poor kid from getting the education he deserves. I don t think so.

Henry Percy, London, UK

Something has dramitically changed in the UK since I emigrated in the 1970's. Prior to that, at least in my home town of Eastbourne, anybody that was good enough went to the local Grammar School (boys only) or High School (girls only). Irrespective of their financial means, if they were good enough to get one of the significantly lower number of university places available, the government gave them a grant to attend. The grants were available to everyone but the working class children received larger grants so that with the help of summer jobs they were able to graduate from University after 3 years without any debt. So what happened to that system. Having lived in the USA for the last 30 years it appears the UK has copied the US system, abolishing the system streaming schools and children based on ability, cheapening the value of a university degree and saddling the student with a mountain of debt. Hardly what I would call progress.

Paul Hutchinson, Calabasas, California USA

Too true. I remember being distinctly underwhelmed when I got to Cambridge at 18 - some very bright sparks, but mostly still a bunch of 'Tim nice but dims.' They were just a hell of a lot more arrogant than the rugby players at my comp and believed their place to be destiny, a right of passage, rather than the luckiest, most awe-inspiring thing to have happened to them in their life. We do need more normal people getting all the way through education, because unless our brightest - irrespective of class - are pushing through and challenging ideas, our society doesn't benefit from this extraordinary talent.

Comprehensives must be bolder and stop telling bright kids that they've got 5 Cs, so what more do they need to worry about. Noone should be ashamed to try and do their best. Everyone should be encouraged to have a go.

anita, cambridge, uk

The whole post-war period has been one of continuous social mobility. 'The working-class' do not exist anymore.

The real problem has been the last twenty years where a combination of right-wing politics, mad left-wing politics, (multiculturalism and ethnic worship), has more or less deliberately created an indignous 'underclass' . These are the sometime 'poor' aka 'the whites'. When we start showing concern about British kids things will change.

Richard, London, England

I come from a working class background, and went to an excellent private school, thanks to the Assisted Place Scheme abolished by Nu Labour. I went to an excellent university, thanks to a full grant - also abolished by Nu Labour. Yesterday, I graduated with a Ph.D. from another excellent university - which would never have been possible without my initial Assisted Place. I just don't understand how this government can say they want more working class children to get a degree while at the same time abolishing the mechanisms once in place to allow those children to excel even though they come from a poor background.

Sarah, Manchester,