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Schools will help mothers who help themselves
I read Lisa Jarmin's article with interest ("Why must parenthood mean losing the race?", Comment, 26 September). The profession is flexible and supportive but you have to find the right school and headteacher. Ms Jarmin chose to leave the profession for five years and presumably had the financial luxury to do so. I took six months' maternity leave for each of my three children and consider myself fortunate. I knew taking more time out would affect my career but also my ability to stay up to speed with an evolving educational landscape. Any woman's decision to come out of her workplace for a long period of time will have consequences and she will always find it a challenge to return.
Mariella Wilson
Deputy headteacher, Feltham Community College
Religion within reason
In a response to my article ("Worship in schools is insidious", Feature, 19 September), Tom Bennett writes that my objective is to "rinse every drop of religiosity from state education" (bit.ly/BennettReplies). I certainly think that religious practices and faith-based schooling should end, but I did not say that there should be no education about religions. Religious world views should be taught as part of a larger enterprise, namely, the history of ideas, because then they are seen for what they are - early and mainly superstitious efforts to make...