Another thread about tutoring

@exotic there are plenty of mixed grammar schools and single sex comps. DD1 goes to a mixed GS. I went to a single sex comp.

@exotic Well, I want all my children to get educations appropriate to their needs. Which AFAIC trumps your desire for administrative simplicity. From your posts it sounds like you no longer even have kids at school so it seems the issue is as irrelevant to you as it is to the OP. Who does have younger DCs I think so who may be affected by the issue in the future.

Much simpler because I have all boys but I don't like single sex schools either and grammar schools tend to be single sex.

I think it an excellent reason- tell me one good reason to separate them at 11yrs.
I apologise if I have lost the thread of this argument- I am not going to trawl back- but it appears to me that you have opted out altogether PooshTun so that the 11+ plus isn't relevant and yet you are insisting that the rest of us should put up with whatever the state wants to give us and making out that my DS wanting to stay with his friends is trivial. I also want my DCs at the same school- again trivial I expect- but I want one lot of teacher training days, uniform to hand down, one lot of letters, one way of doing things, one lot of teachers to get to know, shared lifts etc. Quite important when you are busy working.

@exotic AFAIA this is not what happens with the majority of kids at my DDs school, although it does happen to a certain extent. Most of the young people there are from state schools though.

@seeker that is just not true. I am not 'people like us' for a start. You are the one who is being dishonest since despite having had it pointed out to you many times that the Kent model is not the only model in place in the UK and in fact is in a minority when considering areas with grammar schools rather than grammar school areas, you persist in claiming that it's 23/77 or nothing. And that is clearly not the case. If I lived in Kent I'd want to change the system too, although not in the way you want to change it.

He was 7 months old at the time - a little too early to tell! The older one was 8yrs and quite probably a pass. We hadn't even decided to have a third!
My unacademic one had very academic friends - so yes it would have made a big difference if they were all beavering away on the other side of town.

The unfairness shows up in that people pay out school fees to get a grammar school. They are then happy that they are getting a 1st class education for free. If they don't get a place they revert to plan B and carry on with school fees, they don't go for the place offered by the state. Does this not tell you something?

I do wish people would just be honest. In a grammar school, children mix with "people like us". In a comprehensive they would have to mix with "people like us" AND the other 77%. And people find that scary.

I realise that you are advocating a different system, metabilis, and as I have said repeatedly, it would be possible to have q near as dammit comprehensive as well. Which might be a way to appease the "clever children must be kept separate" brigade while providing a decent education for everyone else. But the 77/23 split is divisive, unfair and only advantages the already advantaged.

Sorry- I thought she was bored- my mistake.
I can't see that those in the grammar would be bored if they had sets below them- the teaching wouldn't change for the top sets.

@exotic Can you not read? I have said several times now that my DD1 is NOT bored, but that she would be if she was at the local comp. Please stop misrepresenting what I have said, and writing inaccurate things about my DD.

This is really very annoying. I know you have an agenda you are desperate to push but making things up is not helping your case in any way, and to be honest I'm now bored of reading your posts.

As I have clearly explained above she is not bored at school mainly because they accelerate the children to ensure this doesn't happen. If she was at the comp she would be bored because they do not accelerate the children. I mentioned that I was cripplingly bored at my comp and yes my parents did mention it to the staff but to be fair, the staff knew, however without moving me out of year, which was frowned upon, there was little else they could do.

I get do bored with the question. It is only so good because there are no grammar schools. If they creamed off the best they wouldn't be the same. People would put up with their DC being bored, as Metabilis seems to be doing- they wouldn't go in and challenge it.

If your Dd is bored at school go in and ask them what they are going to do about it! They would in my area.

I have explained early on that it also not fair to do it by house. I was in a grammar school city. We moved to get out of it. We looked for the schools and then we looked for the house. As I have explained, time without number, there are no grammar schools, unless they go privately they are all the comprehensive school. They have high achieving parents who expect the best for their DCs. My idea was that if I wasn't paying for education or tutors they could have the extras, if possible and if they wished. Mine would tell you that they didn't have much compared to others! (true in many cases).
Maybe I have got a chip on my shoulder-I don't really care as it only shows up on here- but I was going to get my DCs a good state education and not in a school where the best talent is missing.

They were not bored. The DC who was very gifted at maths was working with 6th form in year 9. Mine then left so I don't know what happened once he had the A'level but he certainly wasn't kicking his heels for a few years! I knew the DC when he was in year 5 and he was already going to the comprehensive once a week for a master class. His parents did consider moving for a grammar school but they were very dismissive as in 'all our boys are clever' - they opted to stay for the comprehensive who were willing to treat him as a special case.

@exotic I reckon I know why you are all in favour of catchment area comps if your DCs go to the sort of comp that can lay on those sorts of trips without the parents rioting.

From their comprehensive mine, collectively went to Canada, Russia,Iceland, a French exchange with a private school in south of France, not to mention trips across the channel, geography field trips and they all did outdoor adventure weeks at least once. we turned down New York, Peru and China.
They were not too hot on sport, which was a shame, but the other comprehensive in town (boys only)did the type of sports tours that you are mentioning.

@exotic I too went to Cambridge to read maths from a comp. I know this can and does happen all the time. I was incredibly bored for most of my time at school though. Especially at the age DD1 is now. I'm glad DD1 is rather less bored. I'm also glad she is at a school where being a dyspraxic geeky type is the norm rather than the exception. She is having a much easier time of it than I did as well as a more interesting time.

Well, that's the difference between a posh school and a state school, isn't it. Although having said that many of the city comps (I have friends with kids at all of them) lay on fantastically pricey ski trips every year. As does DD1's GS. Luckily, none of my kids will ever want to go skiing cos of the dyspraxia issues . But honestly - £1K for a skiing trip? :(

It obviously makes a huge difference if some DCs are in a grammar and some in a comprehensive- it would seem that mine were much better off because there was no grammar to cream them off.

Metabilis, you know how your comprehensive worked and you know how your DCs comprehensive worked - they don't all work the same!
Nearly all subjects were set at my DCs comprehensive and the top maths set was certainly comparable to the top set in the grammar- there was no grammar for them to go to. Since one of DSs friends went to Cambridge to do Maths and one to Warwick to do Maths and DS1 got A at A'level in the subject they can't have really done better! They were not out of the ordinary. DS went to a RG university to do a science subject. They were perfectly normal results for the school.
I don't at all follow that if the schools were to merge the top sets would be upset to be 'demoted' common sense says they would be. There is no shame in it.
DS2 wasn't academic, he wasn't at all suited to a grammar but I can't see why he can't go to the same school as his brother. His best friends have always been the academic types- as is his girlfriend. He is perfectly intelligent, articulate, very sporty and gets on with everyone. He was in different sets- it is perfectly possible for DCs in different ability sets to be friends! I can't see why they need different schools when you can cater for all within one building.