Am I alone in feeling uneasy about the tone of Judith Russi’s article (“Placing faith in learning”, Schools Practice, 24 September)? We should perhaps be more hesitant about standing in the educational temple, proclaiming how grateful we are that our schools are better than other schools, and reciting the virtues that other schools lack.

In characterising the intake of Catholic schools, Sr Russi ignores the data on eligibility for free school meals, the standard measure of deprivation. This, for all its faults, is the only reliable method of identifying actual pupil poverty, as opposed to the spurious geographical data she favours. It presents a significantly different picture, revealing the inconvenient truth that our schools are deemed to be so effective largely because they are socially selective.

We would do better to challenge the current notion of school “excellence”, based on a competitive market model, designed to create winners and losers. It is supported by a relentless regime of rote knowledge acquisition, obsessive testing, and constant measurement of “output”. These values cannot be successfully integrated with the reflective, holistic learning that Sr Russi rightly wishes to promote.