Carole Stewart's previous letter "Faith schools are fine but don't charge us" (September 21), in which she floated the old canard that faith schools were a charge on the public purse, demanded a response such as mine.

I thought all would have agreed that the primary task of a teacher is to teach and inspire their pupils. It is not to become engaged in fundraising activities to go and buy equipment and facilities such as computers, library books, art materials, musical instruments and school vehicles. That should all be provided from LEA funds.

Parents should not be expected to contribute to the cost of school building improvement projects and repairs - £70,000 in the case of St John Fisher Primary School to replace temporary wooden classrooms with brick-built structures.

The majority of Catholic schools in England and Wales were founded from the 1850s onwards. They were built with the pennies of the poor, mainly Irish immigrants.

All such schools from their inception have been multicultural. The Irish were joined by Italians, French, Belgians, Jews, Spanish, Poles (in two waves) Greeks, Cypriots and Hungarians, fleeing from religious persecution or political intolerance.

The selection policy of these faith schools was to accept pupils of all abilities and aptitudes.

Catholic schools led the way in accepting pupils with abilities and disabilities in the days when the latter were rejected by the state system.

Yes, I have good grounds to be proud of the contribution Catholics in England and Wales have made to education in our multicultural and multifaith society over the last 150 years.

In doing so, I do not forget nor ignore the contribution that our Anglican friends have made in the past 250 years and are continuing to make.

We have both earned the reputation for excellence that parents are looking for when seeking places in local schools.

We Catholics stand on the shoulders of, if not giants, then leprechauns. We are proud of what our forebears achieved.

However, it would be arrogant if we were to claim that all our schools are exactly how they should be: a close partnership between parent and teacher, sharing a core set of values.

I rest my case. And if I have failed to justify it: mea culpa.

THOMAS MORE DAVIS Aylward Road Merton Park