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

It’s too soon! Your kids may have SEN, they may be quirky ’artistic’ types.
School choice should be based on their needs, not your academic aspirations for them!

Bright kids. Hardly any dickhead parents.

Trouble is that you could move next door to a wonderful secondary school (whether grammar or not) and it could change beyond all recognition before your DC starts there.

I definitely wouldn’t move just for a grammar area - your child might not get in. My friend lives a few miles away in a sought after grammar area and her very bright, academically high achieving daughter just didn’t do well in her 11+. Just didn’t perform well on the day. As a result she had to get a bus at 7.15 every morning to travel over an hour to the only comp remotely close to where she lived that she was prepared to send her daughter to. Imagine if she had uprooted her families lives for that? Friend’s daughter now has a fab career of her choosing and is a postgrad, so her academic trajectory was not diminished at all.

I think both parents changing jobs and also moving house into a grammar school area (unless you are very keen to live there for other reasons) is totally bonkers. Even more so if your DCs aren't even school age yet.

We had 1 at a grammar and 1 at a (not very good) secondary modern but they did almost identical GCSEs. The key to the latter was lots of parental involvement and support at home, some decent teachers and a friendship group that valued education and wanted to do well - all 8 of DD's went to university and 3 have Masters (including DD who has a particularly impressive MSc).

In short because they do not let the delinquents in so the teachers can actually teach rather than deal with behaviour issues.

my child’s school only sets for maths. There is a top set where they will get 9’s and are also entered for further maths gcse. That doesn’t mean the rest are just left, my daughter set out probably at a 6/7 and is now predicted an 8/9 .

Both my daughters go/went to grammar school. There are two issues:

Results are 'sausage in/ sausage out'. If you select academic ability at 11 it mostly translates at GCSE. The teaching doesn't necessarily add much value, some comps do better.

It's a nicer place for nerdier children to be because it's calmer and you're allowed to be interested in your dorky special interest.

Grammar school has been great for my girls but they're not a "better" school experience for everyone.

Have skimmed the thread better and wanted to flag:

Grammar schools (unless fee-paying private schools) are state schools too.

I am not entirely sure that no one is bringing knives into a grammar. That's a bold claim. What's it based on I wonder? I really don't think it's as simple as grammar = no knives; comp = everyone has a knife. Not that anyone is saying that. But there were no knife incidents at my DCs' comp in the 10 years they were there (between them) and there was one at the comp I taught at in about 10 years. Obvs that's one too many.

@Karma1387 just seen your oldest is 2yo! gosh I think I would wait to move before I had assessed how able they were – and look carefully as some grammars are top 10% and others are top 25% (so the latter are easier to get into; otoh the sec mod will in theory have no very able pupils at all)

Cream off the most able pupils

Why the sneering attitude? It’s a shame we have such a prevalent anti-ambition attitude in this country.

I'm in a grammar area. I wouldn't suggest moving to a grammar area, personally. The secondary school here is bad, very bad behaviour, bad results, presumably because the good kids get creamed off into the grammar school. So there's huge pressure on very little kids to do tutoring and homework etc and take a very difficult exam. I'm not sure I'd pass! Friends tell me the teaching at grammar isn't actually all that. And a friend's son has been bullied. I would pick a nice comprehensive to aim for instead.

You say the local comprehensive is awful however things change rapidly in education. As your children are at least 7 years away from secondary a lot can change!!!

Sorry to sound silly but what do you mean by does the comprehensive stream?

Test the dc upon entry into yr 7 and put them into sets based on their ability with different teachers depending upon set.

I have 3 in grammar school (one just about to leave).

The academic ability is very high - they only take the top 20% of 11+ students here. Plus the parents are generally highly invested in their children's learning. There's never any serious behaviour incidents at our school and very little SEN.

It's absolutely night and day compared to the local comps.

There are a few kids in every year who definitely seem like they wouldn't have been bright enough to get in without heavy tutoring, but the vast majority are academically able. The weaker ones do not get asked to leave, they just get lower results than the rest. Being at the bottom in an academic school is not a fun place to be though. If you havs a generally more intelligent cohort and a more stable, well-qualified staff, of course you are going to get better results.

Katharine Birbalsingh has obviously proven that it's not the demographic that dictates results of course.

Have you broken results down by low/medium/high achievers?

Yes, there can be a marked difference

I live in a grammar area but my kids went to the local comprehensive as grammar wouldn’t have suited them at 11. I picked a good comprehensive in an area where grammar was a possibility on purpose.

At 16, one of them considered grammar for Sixth Form but decided to stay at her school instead because she was happy there.

Just to pick up on the point many PP have made, about surrounding schools being poor because the top pupils are "creamed off" - this isn't necessarily true.

I just raise this because OP mentioned Lincolnshire. My DNs attend a grammar school in Lincolnshire, and there's a comprehensive virtually next door in the same small town. (Not sure if I should name the area but if you're from around here you'll know where I mean!)

The comp is well thought of. It's a good school with a friendly and welcoming ethos and a great headteacher. Kids go to one school or the other and aren't resentful or looked down upon. Often academic kids choose to go to the comp or not to take the 11+. Just saying it's not always as you might assume.

What do you mean by "not amazing". Is your perception about what a genuinely comprehensive school can achieve warped by looking at grammar results? Have you broken results down by low/medium/high achievers?

I would not want to move to a grammar county with children not even at school age, unless I was happy with the non-grammar options.

Children who can’t pass the 11+ without coaching do not belong in grammar schools.

That isn’t true of London though as a pass alone isn’t enough & most dc need help with the speed of the test.