Isabel de Bertodano’s article “Class divide” (19 April) raises two significant issues for Catholic education. First, how should diocesan authorities define “the common good”? The Common Good in Education, published by the Catholic Education Service in 1997, made it clear that the bishops at that time wanted to work with local authorities, their traditional partners in education, to support all schools and pupils in a given area and, in particular, “the most vulnerable and the most disadvantaged – those we have a sacred duty to serve”. The common good was not seen then as being limited to the good of Catholic schools within any one diocese. Grant maintained status, the forerunner of academy status, was unanimously rejected by our bishops part