Alice Thomson wrote in The Times on July 23: “Parental interest in a child’s education has four times more influence on attainment by age 16 than does socio-economic background”.

I guess that a good many of my readers fall into the category of parents interested in, and trying to make decisions about their children’s education. So I have a captive audience. . .

When my children were at the age to move schools, I was looking for a school which was a “best fit” for each of them – three very different young people whose talents, interests and needs were met in three different schools.

As parents, we have our own ideas about where and how the needs of our children will best be met, where and how their interests will be fostered and their talents developed.

But the children themselves play a part in the decision-making process.

As parents, my husband and I were not infallible in this respect, and we have never forgotten the embarrassing day when our son came out of an interview with the head of one school, having answered the question: “Why do you want to come to this school?” with a brief but unambiguous: “I don’t want to come here.”

We did not force him.

So it is a joint venture, choosing a school.

I hope that both parents and girls will embark on that venture, and come to our open evening on Wednesday, September 30, from 5.30 to 8.30pm.

Wychwood boasts a stunning art department, highly successful sciences, an English department with teachers of long-standing reputation, energetically led and progressive departments in music and sport; languages and humanities with experienced and specialist teachers who organise trips and events which the girls thoroughly enjoy, and a large selection of other subjects offered at GCSE and A-Level.

This is where 21st century young girls grow into 21st century young women with the qualities, successes and interests to give them the best possible start in adult and student life.

We may be small but this is also one of our strengths, as no one need be excluded from any opportunities at any level.

In addition, Wychwood’s particular brand of personal attention to the success and progress of the individual means that, although we have a mixed ability intake, our consistently excellent results are nearly always significantly better than would have been predicted.

Our latest results show 100 per cent pass rate at A-Level yet again, and 100 per cent of our GCSE students achieving at least eight grades A*-C.

Within this there were, of course, straight A*s and As at GCSE and straight As at A-Level.

Our leavers go on to a variety of universities such as Cambridge, London, Kent and Edinburgh, and Brookes or Central St Martin’s for Art Foundation courses. I trust that their choices for higher education will be as fruitful as their choice of school.

Susan Wingfield Digby, headmistress