My article, “Why can’t we be one big happy family?” (16 March), has provoked critical letters from Carolyn Roberts (23 March) and Mike Rath (30 March). Neither are impressed by my ideas for the state and independent sectors to work together more closely in the 21st century, with state schools becoming sponsored academies attached to independents.

While I can understand the negativity, I worry that criticisms such as the ones made against my proposal are so despairing. Ms Roberts thinks the solution is the abolition of the independent sector. Well, that isn’t going to happen. No government of left or right is going to do it. So we can either continue this century as we did the last, with both sectors barely talking to each other, or we can move beyond the traditional hostilities and name-calling and look for imaginative ways of healing this uniquely British and damaging divide. By building bridges, pupils, teachers and parents, as well as society at large, will gain.

Anthony Seldon, Master, Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire.