How do a few comprehensive schools produce seem to produce successful people?

Brizzle
Catchment areas cannot shrink in a comp system - because they have to cover the whole county.
Getting in from out of catchment can become tricky due to house building

but my local comp still has 400 empty spaces so clearly lots of kids are finding spaces elsewhere

Popular comprehensive schools have a smaller catchment area, then house prices around the school go up and suddenly the previously 'comprehensive' school is limited to those who can buy a house in the area.

The comprehensive where my DB works is in a town with a lot of middle class families but was built on the edge of town near a large housing estate where a lot of immigrants live. The school does a sterling job of challenging the bright (of whatever background) at the same time as providing for the many who have SEND or who are from deprived families. It's truly a comprehensive school from what DB has said. The biggest challenge they face is not the immigrants or deprived families but the chronic shortage of funding as it's in one of the lowest funded areas in the country.

Geographic selectivity is one of the greatest drivers of educational inequality in state education systems.
Piffle
My kids went to a comp 4 miles away.
We live half a mile outside the catchment.
The catchment is over 11 miles across.

Private schools and selective schools do far more damage than do catchment boundaries in fully Comp areas.

Geographic selectivity is one of the greatest drivers of educational inequality in state education systems.

What? Being able to get to them?
Do give over.

There you go, Talkin - you have given one common selection criterion of comprehensive schools!

It's great that this school has impressive alumni.

I have worked at an inner city comp for years. We get great results but no famous alumni as far as I know.

But then for me the fact that a kid I taught was my mum's specialist muse when she was in hospital, or that another boy started a gay pride event in the city, is more impressive than a list of famous people!

Many comprehensive are selective.
Then they are not comprehensives.
A Comprehensive school does not select. It takes in every child in the catchment area who is the right age.
Regardless of gonads, god or any other factor

Previously faith schools could demand that you put them first if you wanted a place there. A friend of mine was not allowed to do the 11 plus because she was going to a Catholic school. The success could be partly historic. Also any selection will improve a school because ambitious parents will do what needs to be done to get their dc into the school.

Many comprehensive are selective.

That’s not what I am saying at all, Talkin. I am not saying that my things to look for are necessities, just that they widely recognised to contribute to success.

MariaNovella
So no Comp can be a successful school?
Because your criteria includes selection Comp

What brizzledrizzle said: as has been noted on these boards before, the more barriers to entry there are to a school, the more middle class it becomes. With many faith schools, (or the ones near me at least) you have to "plan ahead" for 2, 3 or even 5 years with regular church attendance to qualify your DC for admission.

And there are many comprehensive schools across the country that were grammars before the education reforms of the 60s and a fair chunk of their illustrious alumni come from the selective era.

We went to church from birth to 11 so we could go to an out-of-catchment faith school due to the religious character being important to us.

It was seen as much better than the local comprehensives and many of my academically-driven friends did the same.

The drivers of a successful school are always multi factorial and high school performance is always a result of many details that each provide incremental advantages.

However, things to look out for are year groups that are not too large; low staff turnover; a degree of pupil selection; schools that are well embedded in local communities; schools with their own feeder school or with strong relationships with feeder schools.

Anonymity in any shape or form is a red flag.

It’s well known that faith schools are a class filtration system. Faith schools will have more middle class families that have played the system.

Bahumbug
RC comp does no selection that I can see
Um, its Roman Catholic ie excludes 91% of the population. That's pretty darned selective from where I sit

Selection by the back door - a state school can have an expensive uniform with blazers costing £50 etc. An expensive uniform puts some children out of the running if parents have to spend £200-£300 on uniform. Parents who are well off tend to have the money to buy houses near good state schools and the cycle of good results - well off families continues. Obviously not all children from well off families are committed to educational achievement and there are plenty of intelligent, committed children from poorer families who value education.

It's all about how the school encourages the children.

Some schools are happy just for students to reach the national average while others really take an interest in their future.

A few years ago successful people were happy for their children to attend the local comp as they believed they would benefit.
In this County its Comps or fee paying
so the Comps have a full range of pupils.

In areas with lots of selective schools there are no comps

Why the interrogation?

I said it was a trap!

I think it depends on the type of families attending the comps and their connections.
A few years ago successful people were happy for their children to attend the local comp as they believed they would benefit.

Anthea
How many comps do you have direct experience of in how many counties?
And how does one define "barely any good" ?