I was pleased to see a contemporary of Bowie, Howard Scholey, defending their old school, in the wake of Hanif Kureishi`s attack (Letters, 15/08/17). I taught for over thirty years in a comprehensive school in a deprived area, and whilst some pupils probably thought of it as such, it never deserved to be classed as a "shithole"; to be fair, some pupils would never have had the chance to witness what went on in the examination classes, or see the delight and relief on results` day. There were certainly numerous unruly pupils and many lessons disrupted, even a small number of "hopeless" teachers, but, like in Bromley I suspect, most were hardworking, not just "okay", and many colleagues were "inspirational".
Hundreds of pupils did "progress to a university education", about a dozen to Oxbridge, so whilst many will doubtless still have unhappy memories of their school years, hopefully many more will not.
Schools tend to get labelled, with local press and gossip not helping, resulting in the "label" being difficult to change. Had the school I taught in, for instance, not had such a reputation, many hundreds more parents would have enrolled their children there, and more students would have stayed on for A levels, improving the results and educational experience even further.
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