Would you like to see the return of Grammar Schools?

[naomi24]

As an ex-Grammar School girl, I've just watched with great interest a programme on the demise of Grammar Schools and the loss of opportunity that resulted in for bright working class children.

Quote from Edwina Curry who came from a working class background but won a scholarship to a Grammar School and subsequently went on to Cambridge -

'I may be a Tory but I'm a Scouse Tory, and to have a country where only money buys a good education is deeply, deeply wrong'.

Your thoughts?

[B00]

There's still grammar schools around isn't there? There's one near where I live for a start.

[Ankou]

it seems to me to be some sort of faux elitism for pretentious wannabees. soory if that offends anyone, but saying 'i went to grammar' to me smacks of desperate social elation akin to 'i went to eaton you know'.

who cares what schol you went to ? what you do with the rest of your life is so much more important.

we have several grammar schools in our area. i am not against my girls going to it if they want to, but our local comp has an ofsted excelent record. a school is only as good as the people who teach in it.

do you care what school i went to ? or can you guess...?

[B00]

Well ankou's gonna hate me then, as I want Mini Boo to go to ours and not the local comp.

From what I can gather, the pupils at the grammar work harder to achieve what they want, and I want Mini Boo to be the same.

[Ankou]

of course not b00. i luvs yer.

hopefully you arent one of those mums - and i live next to several - who drives a chelsea tractor and thrives on the desperate need for everyone to know that their child goes to the grammar school.

[B00]

No, I don't drive :P

I just want Mini Boo to achieve to the best of her abilities, and I (maybe wrongly?) assume she'll be able to do this, or at least stand a better chance of, if she's amongst like minded fellow pupils.

[Zhukov]

Did you attend "Arrow,ankou?

[flip_flop]

I completely understand Lazygun - but I can only speak from personal experience.

Where I grew up, the choice was really quite simple - go to the local grammar and get a decent education, or go to the local comp and don't. The local comprehensive was awful and I saw a number of my primary school peers be utterly failed by the school.

In the town I now live in, there is more choice, but the local comprehensive is terrible.

[Ankou]

alas no zhukov. me mum and dad aint nobles or oligarchs.

[naomi24]

//it seems to me to be some sort of faux elitism for pretentious wannabees. soory if that offends anyone, but saying 'i went to grammar' to me smacks of desperate social elation akin to 'i went to eaton you know'.//

It seems to me there's a bit of inverted snobbery going on around here from more than one poster. We're talking about education and it's useful to know where people are coming from on the subject.

[overthetop]

I passed 11+ and went to grammar and am pleased I did. Apart from the academic advantages (sadly I did not over excel), it was a school for "young ladies" in a deprived area. We had elocution lessons evem, which stood me in good stead. Don't remember about free dinners - I lived close by and mostly went home. But the uniform providers would come in each year and measure us for new uniforms. Mine were provided free. My local friends thought my summer boater was a great source of fun but it didn't affect our friendship.

[NOX]

I went to school in the local idiots one ( when I went) and my wife went to a well known public school for girls. While it hasn't been too hard for me to get the academic side of thigns onto a leval playing field in adulthood, you can still see she went where she went and I went where I went- and as such she makes a far better first impression- which means she gets what she wants more easily because people are affected by that.

[Ankou]

inverted snobbery. only implied, as - for one thing - you have no knowledge of my educational background.

[jomifl]

My family lived on a council prefab. estate. When my brother and I passed our 11+ and went to the local grammar school we were immediately ostracised by our erstwhile 'friends' and intimidated and bullied for 5 years. I guess their parents were the 'chavs' of that era and they simply reflected their attitudes. My experience have given me a rather jaundiced view of the 'nobility' of the(lower) working classes and their attitude to education. A few more grammar schools would be good for society and give the children that want it a decent education and a way out of the ghetto.

[horseshoes]

I went to an all girls Grammar School and my OH went to the Grammar School for boys. The two schools merged with the Secondary Modern School when I was in the Lower Sixth. I hated it! I think single sex education has far less distractions! Up until that point, the Secondary Modern School had also been a very good school, which proves to me that it is not the selection system which is wrong rather than the actual comprehensive system; one size most definitely not fit all. My niece, aged 13 also goes to a very good Grammar School on the Wirral.

[d9f1c7]

Grammer schools exist now, when did they go away? My son goes to one.

[SueMoneyRowley]

When I went to a comprehensive school, having passed my 11 plus, I was put into the top stream. At the age of 13, those who had been put into a lower stream because they had filed the 11 plus were reassessed and some were put up into the top stream. This happened to one of my friends. It's a shame that all kinds of schools aren't available so that choices can be made based on a child's aptitudes and abilities. Grammar schools gave academically able children the chance to have an academic education - why shouldn't they'll be able to use their abilities to the full?

[d9f1c7]

Parents want grammar schools. In the year my son did the test, 550 kids did it for 155 places, every one of those parents wanted the best education they could get and were all hopeful that their child would get in. The political hypocracy of the, predominately left wing, descenters, is quite breath taking. Grammar schools are "elite" so we'll sentence all children to what ever mediocre education can be administered when the teachers are not attending to the asbo mob, brilliant! oh and by the way I'll send my own children to public school! Poor people must suffer my ideology I don't have to adhere to it myself!

[LazyGun]

@d9
Always good to see the use of sweeping generalisations, demonisation and unevidenced assertions of the strawman variety being introduced into a debate.

[joggerjayne]

Does education have to be a "level playing field"?

For some families, education is a priority.

Other families don't see it as all that important.

If some parents see school as an inconvenience, which delays their kids getting on with life, then that is their free choice.

[d9f1c7]

Well Harriet Harman and Dianne Abbot spring to mind straight away LG.

Comprehensive education's own figures indicate that teachers spend a disproportionate amount of time on unruly pupils. I'm sorry if the facts have removed some of the rose from your specs.