How are Grammar schools so much better than comprehensives if they get the same funding?

Just here to say I'm absolutely staggered this question has been asked...

You’re basing a lot of this on your opinion rather than facts or actual experience.

Full of kids whose parents are fully on board with education and therefore respectful and cooperative students who are keen to learn. The teaching is not disrupted by large numbers of disenfranchised children whose parents don't value education and who often actively work against the teachers.

That fact you can’t understand why being a classroom environment with trained teachers is much better than being homeschooled (for the vast majority of children) is why you probably shouldn’t be considering this.

You are completely bonkers OP !

Your eldest is 2 ! You have no idea at this stage if they are particularly bright and importantly have an aptitude ( which is most important for grammar schools ) or not .

I went to a grammar years ago. My brothers didn’t get in and our life chances were fixed then. I saw firsthand what happened to those who didn’t get in and both ended up in later life showing they were as capable as I was at 11 , just late developers .

My husband went to a true comprehensive with setting in another part of the country. Got better a levels than me and like me went to university. My extremely bright and applied SIL in another part of the country went to comprehensive and ended up with a PhD!

My children went to true comprehensives in another part of the country . Whilst they came from the same family with the same opportunity, sadly application played a part in their outcomes too. One did very well. I know plenty in the area we live in who do very very well in the comprehensive system which is the only choice.

You seem to have an attitude where you will both encourage and foster a good home learning environment, so I would not worry about moving to a selective area. Your children will have the opportunity to do well , if they have the application. You have no idea if by moving, you actually end up limiting their choices ( if they don’t get in! ) .

its really not a choice of homeschooling or nothing . I agree with your husband on that

Well the grammar school by me puts huge work expectations on very able children with parents who support academic success. The teaching is less up to date, less engaging than in the massively lower attaining school I work in but it can be because the kids will do well either way.

Many of my children’s friends went and one - incidentally one of the top students in the exam to get in - crashed and burned. He left with few passes and works a minimum wage job. A sibling group who have done well and have gone off to good unis to do great courses fared better but two had a lot of sexual harassment and both left for a comp sixth form. But any anecdote in either direction is largely irrelevant as which school suits which child is subject to uncontrollable variations.

I would never use one and if your children don’t get in then they have already got the top slice so the comps then struggle disproportionately.

at primary school my kids played massive games of hide and seek in the school field at break time. You don’t get that with home education.

I would think that if you do not want your children to break friendship groups by moving school, then you need to find a decent comprehensive school in a decent area.

I went to an old fashioned style grammar school when 11+ was commonplace, but there were only 3 of us who went to that particular school from my primary.

Lack of friends apart, it was good for me because the music education was good and there were plenty of music bands/orchestra/choirs and instrument lessons. This may just have been that school at that time.
My brother hated it and struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia and bullying, and unsympathetic teaching. A lot of bullying went under the radar because they are just cleverer at it.

My class was the 'worst in the school' with behaviour. Some people left (managed out) and went on to do better in secondary moderns, one person who I know was extensively tutored to get in did badly in exams and spent a lot of lessons hiding in the toilet by the end. One person got no qualifications at all - his parents had moved him to my primary to get through the 11+.

I sent my DC to a decent Comprehensive. TBH I had gripes with that too, but they had a decent time of it and gaps in the curriculum can be made up with outside activities.

I went to school in south Lincolnshire, you could study A-levels then at comp sixth forms and you still can.

OP I think a lot of kid mess around because they can’t understand the lesson. If they can’t follow it, they get bored, so they mess around. The more academically able the pupils are, the more likely they are focus on the lesson. Obviously there are clever disruptive kids, and well behaved less academic kids, but on the whole, selective schools will have less of a crowd control issue in lessons.

Schooling is more than academic progress. Making friendships is important too. If you homeschool then your children do not get to mix with other children everyday.

Bullying is off the scale at our local Grammar.

My kids go to a comp with a grammar stream so they end up in their lessons with the most able kids. It is great as they can be in different streams for different lessons - one has a dyslexic friend who is top set for maths but has support for English. So it's honestly the best of both.

My DD who got 12 x grade 9’s in her GCSE’s didn’t get into local grammar (very competitive). Thankfully she went to an excellent state school. Personally I would not be uprooting my whole life for grammar school.

It's a horrible system. They " do better" because the are starting off with ambitious offspring of ambitious and tutored kids.

I'm puzzled as to why you think you could do a better job than a school could, based on a couple of years, presumably as a SAHM with a toddler.

You really don't have an objective view of the English education system. Grammar schools can also be a hotbed of pressure, MH issues, eating disorders etc. Then again, keeping a child at home because the parents can agree on their schooling also seems like a recipe for disaster.

Comprehensives tend to focus on getting the weakest pupils up to a C and the brightest 1 percent, and the middle lose out. Grammars focus on getting everyone up to As, and those getting B/C can be made to feel like low performers. Generally less disruption in class in grammar schools. Pros and cons.

Just to say be warned that just because a school is called a Grammar School and if you want to go there and are not in the catchment area you can take the 11+ to get in. Some pupils will be there because they live the nearest to the school
We have a couple of Grammar Schools like that in our area.

Personally I wouldn’t bother looking at a Grammar School. After all your child might not get in and then you are stuck with the Secondary Modern system

There are areas with very good comprehensive schools. What about looking at good to excellent comprehensives and moving to within a few feet of one of those

I do think the old fashioned grammar school education were very restrictive. I think a good comprehensive is much better than a grammar

To read the posters on here, anyone would think that Grammar Schools are some holy grail of teaching. They are not. They are a school like every other school and will have their own set of issues.
Most of the parents will be at work full time and being a secondary school there will be much less involvement with school

Be careful you aren’t putting pressure on your child to perform a certain way

Imagine if you moved, changed jobs and up ended your life and your child fails the 11+ or ends up in a school they hate. Or just wants to do something else that the grammar doesn’t cover

The pressure will be enormous

I think if you are at a grammar school then your peers all want to do well at school and you don’t get so many pupils who want to disrupt the class. It will be a good learning environment. Grammar schools can attract better subject teachers as they want to teach their subject without disruption.
If you have a grammar school system, then the other schools in the area are not really comprehensive schools. They are old style secondary modern schools.
As a child, I was transferred from a secondary modern school to a grammar school. The thing that struck me the most was the discipline that was adhered to.

What makes think homeschooling will be best for them? What teaching/education experience do you have?

"We are now exploring lincolnshire"

Slightly to the south of Lincolnshire is Peterborough (about 10 miles south of Stamford).

Peterborough has one very good school indeed that is not selective (well, apart from a few places) - the King's School Peterborough. It has been oversubscribed every year for the last 20 years.

The only trouble is, you have to go to church regularly (or attend a mosque or mandir etc) if you really want to be sure of a place (either that or live very close indeed to the school).

The order that they take pupils is:

1 Looked after children

2 Children of worshipping members of the Church of England, Church of Wales, The Episcopal Church of Scotland and Methodist Church of Great Britain

3 Children of staff members

4 Siblings of current pupils

5 Children of worshipping members of other Christian denominations or of Other Major Faiths.

6 Any other children based on the closest to the school

Incidentally, parents are marked on how often they attend services and for how many years.