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Brief letters: Pushy parent premium | No-eggs pancake | Using your smell library | Picky bits and party tea | Nominative determinism
This story summarizes reporting from The Guardian. Read the original for full context. Wire items stay in our news sitemap for seven days. Editorial policy.
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Education — The Guardian
If the implication of your article ( UK houses near top state secondary schools cost £40,000 more, research reveals, 1 September ) is that parents are willing to pay this premium to facilitate entry, Henrietta Barnett in London is a misleading example. This highly selective school draws from a very wide area, far beyond the NW11 postcode cited. The real premium is paid by those parents who can afford the intensive private tutoring that they hope can improve their daughters’ chances.
• During the war, my mother used to make “winter eggs” ( No eggs, no potatoes but ‘a lot of imagination’: how Spain cooked in war’s hunger years, 2 August ). A plain-flour batter was dropped into a frying pan, producing egg-shaped pancakes. They were delicious when fried in the fat from that single rasher of rationed bacon.
• When I was a student in the 1960s, a chemistry lecturer said we should “acquire a smell library” to help us identify organic compounds ( Smelling test: children need education in sniffing aromas, scientist says, 31 August ).
• In our house we call it “party tea” ( The hill I will die on: No self-respecting adult should use the term ‘picky bits’, 31 August ).
• I do tire of these petty arguments about nominative determinism ( Letters, 2 September ).
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
• During the war, my mother used to make “winter eggs” ( No eggs, no potatoes but ‘a lot of imagination’: how Spain cooked in war’s hunger years, 2 August ). A plain-flour batter was dropped into a frying pan, producing egg-shaped pancakes. They were delicious when fried in the fat from that single rasher of rationed bacon.
This report is published with credit to The Guardian. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on The Guardian →
Source: The Guardian. Published 3 Sept 2026, 04:51 pm.
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