Letter: Lots of Cs and Es make the grade

Sir: While Verity Underwood's gratitude for her children's assisted places is splendid ('Places at the Ritz for the favoured few', 20 October), she must be corrected on one point. Assisted places, she says, 'are not going to Social Class Five children'. On the contrary, as a Mori survey for the Independent Schools Information Service three years ago showed, nearly four in 10 assisted place-holders come from social classes C2, D and E, and one in six from the lowest socioeconomic groups. Not, perhaps, a perfect reflection of British society as a whole, but certainly not justifying her gloomy analysis.

Yours faithfully, RICHARD DAVISON Isis: Independent Schools Information Service London, SW1