Would you send your child to a grammar school ?

"If they are lazy and easily led then they may 'catch' disruptiveness."

How sad to have such little faith in your children........

If they are lazy and easily led then they may 'catch' disruptiveness.

Mine however, never reported any disruption. They've both left now, as of last year, but that was 14 years of secondary/sixth form education between them, in a non-leafy town and neither of them ever told me they couldn't do their work because of disruption.

Is there a link between IQ and likelihood of being disruptive?

What can be catching is attitude - whether it's cool or swotty to study etc. Positive and negative attitudes are not determined by the system of the school - I expect there's some GSs where there are kids who swan through and disrupt the grafters which could be a problem relative to a normal well-run comp. You really can't generalise.

But if the clever kids are not disruptive in the grammar school why would they suddenly become disruptive in the top set of the comprehensive?

Both my daughter's lovely friends who are round this evening were not in top set for everything. They're a great solid group of friends who are supportive and kind and hard working and very polite... Shall I nip up and check they haven't turned her thick?

And bear in mind, these are only comp top sets, so even in that set there were probably some dim wits who only got As! Think how awful a child would have to be not to end up in them! If only these girls had been in secondary moderns from 11, away from my precious girl

In so glad we don't live in a grammar area. So so glad.

The false assumptions people seem to have about comps and the children who go there is astounding.

My DDs were set from day 1, in year 7, at their comp.
They went on SAT results initially. However these sets were very fluid with dc moving up and down if required.

And both DDs got fantastic results and went/are at good unis. As are their friends.

Love this idea of children having to 'contend' with less bright ones the very minute they step out of the door of top set... What is this contending? Do you mean 'seeing'?

And for heavens sake stop with the dramatics about 'the l word' being 'banned': you know perfectly well that's just silly!

I totally think op should look at all available schools, and I think both she and the dd have a few assumptions worth challenging. But it's depressing to see the same and worse from grown adults on this thread!

Disruptiveness may not be catching but it is - well, disruptive.

Comprehensive does not mean mixed ability teaching.

Oh, and low IQ is not catching. Neither is disruptiveness.

Of course comps set. However, for the OPs DD, it sounds like the issue is that she is too peer influenced so she might be rather happy to drift into a lower set than she's capable of to be with her mates. If the OP sends her to the GS she won't be able to do this.

The thing is, most of us don't choose schools for ideological reasons. We have our children, with their different abilities and characters, and we have a few schools available to us so we try to find the one that fits best. The OP is trying to work out what will be best for her child in her area.

Anyone choosing a GS because of some 'mystique' is daft (and anyone choosing a mediocre private school is dafter but it happens!) - if you look round one and it's shambolic, look elsewhere.

I'm not afraid of giving my views, however unfashionable they might be. In fact once I start, it's hard to hold back the flood! So many things about the way schools operate are just plain wrong-headed. But that's a whole other thread...

Comprehensive doesn't always equal mixed ability classes as some seem to think. Mixed ability teaching seems to go in and out of fashion, and currently seems very much out of fashion.

What do mixed ability classes have to do with it? Most schools set or stream. Some of them really stringently.

My son has just started university and went to a local comp All his mates are at uni too and I never heard him ever mention any disruption in his classes. It was hugely mixed and he got a great education.

Well said holmes. a lot of teachers on this site are very circumspect
when it comes to suggesting that selective education could benefit the less able as well as the academic.

Most teachers either though bullying, or just toeing the union line dont give
the views you have for fear of being labelled.

Shock horror. Non academic pupils might benefit from not being in mixed
abilty classes.

l

OK, maybe south-east London's different. I just seem to know quite a lot of kids at different comps who are happily getting on with a decent education. This is, to my mind, enormously reassuring.

Er...because I question a generalisation, I'm being pedantic?