Tories shit all over the comprehensive system with a return to the 1950s and a nationwide 11+

Rather than shitting on the comprehensive school system, I think they are attempting to wipe away some of the shit. What's so wrong with differentiated learning. I get the feeling that most posters want the more able to stay in comprehensives as their role is really to drive up the standards of the others - at the expense of their own.

Is it? I took the figure from the Manchester Evening News website.

National average for FSM is 29.3% over the last 6 years !

'you also missed my 'Nephews' grammar school out as well !'

St Ambrose?
4% fsm National Average 13.9%

"i am going to give your the job over the Grammar School boy/girl because your progress 8 is better" !

Will employers really care whether a candidate has been to a Grammar school or a Secondary Modern if that person is qualified for the role?

you also missed my 'Nephews' grammar school out as well !

You have missed out Altrincham Boys Grammar !

Whatever you say about progress '8' the deciding figure is % of GCSEs inc Engl/Maths at A* - C

When Lincoln were beaten 5-0 by Arsenal in the FA Cup by your reasoning Lincoln who had no MultI Million Pound players won because they had achieved better than arsenal !

Invented 'Bollocks' that buys in to giving awards for turning up. In the real world no employer is going to give a job to a person with no C GCSE grades.

"i am going to give your the job over the Grammar School boy/girl because your progress 8 is better" !

Secondly for anyone to say Stretford or Partington or parts of Sale are not deprived is beyond belief !

Because Mum preferred comps have highly over subscribed catchment areas,hence house inflation in the catchment of the best. Bring able to afford a bus is neither here nor there if you don't get a place. You need property in that catchment or as near as possible. Those further away in cheaper housing lose out again when population numbers drop.

There will always be preferred comps. Some towns have 3 but 1 has parents fighting to get their DC in.

A lottery system is the only fair solution.

“I think the mistake is to assume the intake of a high performing comp is anything like a grammar so the change wouldn't make much difference. It will make a huge difference.”

Exactly noblegiraffe. DD’s school is a high performing comprehensive, but it is in a rural area with over 30 feeder schools. Some of the children who live in the back of beyond don’t have another secondary school within a reasonable distance. When we were looking at secondary schools I only put one school on the application form.

Wetoopere This ^^

GreenGinger2 loads get their kids into the preferred alternative comp and pay for the bus.

Doesn't this contradict the claim that people can't get their DCs into a good comp. because they can't afford to buy a house in the catchment?

If money can be found to bus DCs to Grammar Schools, why can money be found to bus DCs to their preferred comps. Build more comps. and more DCs will get to choose a good school. Build more Grammar schools and only the 10% that pass the test will be able to choose a good school. You can actually see this happening on your own door step yet you think more Grammar Schools is what is needed?

Why would Trafford want to change anything about their education system

Here is a breakdown of the number of disadvantaged DCs in Trafford's Modern Schools and Grammar Schools

Stretford High School - 77
Ashton On Mersey - 59
St Antony's Catholic College - 44
Altrincham College of Arts - 43
Sale High School - 39
Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College - 37
Broadoak School - 35
Wellacre Technology Academy - 29
Lostock College - 26
Flixton Girls School - 25
Wellington School - 19

Stretford Grammar School - 25
Sale Grammar School - 9
Urmston Grammar Academy - 6
Altrincham Grammar School for Girls - 5
Loreto Grammar School - 4

flyingwithwings can I suggest you take a look at the progress 8 for each of these schools.

Our schools catchments are huge.
They are both 30-40 minute drive away. So, a few villages away, we are as far out as they come, but that would mean that potentially my kids would be going to school with children who live over an hour away from me. IYSWIM

Of course the local kids can walk there, but the majority of children are bussed in from the surrounding areas.

I do agree i love the idea of local secondary schools. Especially as this means the secondary are huge to accommodate. The kids go from small infants to massive secondaries. It must be very daunting.

In many areas children live in villages,hamlets,suburbs and towns without a secondary school. Did you seriously not know this?

Average GCSE pass rate including Eng/Maths of Trafford's Modern pupils 2016 60.9% !

1846 pupils took GCSEs last year at their 'Modern Schools' !

Yes. Only 1 bus for the grammar. Masses for 2 comps. We are in catchment for one comp but when population numbers dip loads get their kids into the preferred alternative comp and pay for the bus.All kids would be going on a bus regardless of where it went. Journey times and costs similar. All are packed and you're just greatful to get a seat,have to apply early for all.

Why would Trafford want to change anything about their education system !

The only school that looks a bit 'iffy' is Lostock but with 300 pupils it is obviously struggling !

Broadoak shows how good management and strategic decisions can do. They have managed to transform a school the 'doomsayers' on here would represent the archetypal interpretation of a Modern school.

GreenGinger2 - There are fleets that come into our town,so many the comps stagger the times. The journey to the grammars are pretty similar just in a different direction.

If the Grammar Schools didn't exist, would this still be happening on such a large scale?

Here is a breakdown of all Trafford's Modern Schools.

                                  pupils  GCSE %   FSM % last 6 years

Ashton On Mersey 1438 65% 21.4%
Altrincham Arts 950 51% 27%

BTH Catholic 1146 74% 18%
Broadoak 334 65% 60%
Flixton Girls 814 68% 20.5%
'Lostock' 312 32% 44.9%
St Antony's 507 43.6% 44.6%
Sale High 586 59% 40.1%
Wellacre (Boys) 749 48.2% 24.2%
Wellington 1398 74% 11.7%

noble
Here children are bussed, so your siblings would just go to different bus stops at the relevant times.

They have been threatening to stop those busses and yes they are completely opposite directions

Ginger Our "leafy" comp is in a posh village with high house prices but the school intake also includes children from rural council houses and traveller children.

I live in a grammar area. The parents are already tutoring from year 3 to pass the exam. This gets ramped up to epic levels and coaching camps in the summer before the exam

It makes me so sad. My eldest is friends with the ones likely to go to grammar, my eldest is clever and really really pushes himself to be as good as his friends and i am really really worried they won't get in to actually the school that would be best fit. Purely because he's not been tutored to get in.

Noble many many kids are bussed into comps. There are fleets that come into our town,so many the comps stagger the times. The journey to the grammars are pretty similar just in a different direction. Buses don't pick kids up from their houses so many walk to get said bus. My DC do more walking now at secondary than they did at primary. We don't all live in cities or London with schools aplenty to walk to.

Just out of interest given how worried you are re the rich holding onto house prices in the best school areas what are you suggesting and pushing the gov to do in order to get round the wealthy buying school places via property and the huge unfairness and inequalities in many of our comps? Obviously without the use of buses. Keeping poorer families contained in poorer areas and the rich in the richer areas doesn't really push for a social mix. Obviously many less well off families can't afford to live in the wealthier areas.