At the commencement of Catholic Schools Week, I write to express my support of England’s bishops in their opposition to the creation of new academies with guaranteed Catholic places as low as 50 per cent. I would find it very difficult to support the Archdiocese of Southwark’s director of education (News from Britain and Ireland, 17 January) in her willingness to support the opening of such new half-Catholic academies.In a 40-year career in Catholic education, I served as a religious education teacher in several very different Catholic schools in Westminster, Southwark and Brentwood and served as head teacher in the two latter dioceses. The percentage of Catholic children in these schools varied from anything between 50 and 100 per cent. Only in those schools with a very subst