to think a grammar school is the only option for my DCs...

[secondaryfool]

A bit of background: Wasn't brought up here, neither was DP. In our country there is a system with five different types of secondary schools, depending on how well you achieve at school you go to a grammar school, a comprehensive school etc. Both me and DP went to grammar schools. We are told DCs are very bright, and they are doing very well at school....

Personally, I think primary schools are pretty brilliant in the UK, not so much secondary schools...

We live in a rough area of the country and even at primary school it seems quite normal to use swear words etc. I've found drugs and condoms on on the school premises (not from primary school kids, I hope!, teenagers hang out there in the afternoons) - and this is one of the better schools of the city!

Anyway, I'm not bothered with primary school. The secondary schools though bother me. So many pupils seem to have no respect for teachers, they are called names on a daily basis. Pupils smoke weed like we used to smoke cigarettes, there are seperate entrances and car parks for teachers, they have to swipe a card to enter, for safety reasons. In some schools there are up to seven safety doors you need to go through to be in the actual school. It's like a prison. So alien to me where at our schools anybody can enter any part of the building at any time...

I don't want my children to be influenced by those kind of people, and I know from primary school how much children are influenced by their peers: hair style, clothes, language, interests, video-games, who has already got a mobile and who hasn't, etc. Hopefully, it will be recommended that they go to (state) grammar school (is that how it works, recomendation of teacher?). Don't really want them to go to a posh public one, no need for that, but a normal school with kids like them who have been brought up with values and morals...

It's not only about the drugs but about being with incredibly thick (or maybe just uneducated?) people. Teenagers who ask if I speak "European" coming from the continent, or saying Hitler is the King of Germany, those kind of people... I've worked with many comprehensive school kids in the area and there seem to be many like this.

I'm sure people as thick as that are a very small minority and teenagers are well known for taking the mick. Are you sure that wasn't said to you in a joking way?

No, definitely not taking the mick. The two examples I gave were from teenagers who were actually quite polite. Those were genuine questions...

Why isn't this is Education? if you're asking for advice you should be there. Of course if you just want to upset people...

Secondaryfool - the best thing to do is to go on Rightmove and search your area, it will show you the secondary schools nearest to you and you can check out their Ofsteds, results etc. Then find out what the admissions policies are so you have a proper idea of which schools your DCs would be eligible for. As others have said, many "grammar" schools apart from in the SE have that name but are now actually independent. In which case, they will have their own entrance exams etc. I'm not sure where you are from originally but I'm afraid some teenagers these days can be quite a scary bunch. Even in the olden days at my grammar school, we had pupils that got drunk at weekends (so I'm told ), got pregnant at 14, got kicked out for various reasons etc (not me on those last two counts!) But .. there are nice kids everywhere you know, it's just the loud, obnoxious ones make themselves seen and heard more obviously. The nice ones are probably still in the Library

I think I may live in your home country - the system really worries me, the amount of fixed streaming of school opportunities at such a young age seems very limiting.

Bradford doesn't have grammar schools. The LEA has a website explaining admissions arrangements. If you want your children to avoid a comprehesive, then you will have to move or pay for private school.

op from bradford your nearest state grammar schools will be in halifax where there are two, and skipton, where there is one boys and one girls. dependingn on where you live and how bright your kids are you may get them in but how will you get them there? also they wouldn't be with other kids from their community - whcih may bother you? or not?
i'm sure there are good and bad comps in bradford as in every city. children often travel some way, can you look at a few that you may be able to get into rather than just your nearest?
bradford grammar is fee paying. there are quite a lot of other independent schools in the city too. but you will need a lot of money.
btw i have never been past a school in bradford which smells of weed. intrigued to know which it is?!

None of my nieces or nephews smell of weed. Well, one of them does occasionally, but only in the Festival season...........

I know of girls in private school who asked what a council house is, and on explanation cried 'but isn't that like..... communism?'

So thinking the HItler is the King of Germany (or affecting to think so) is really just another kind of ignorance in another kind of school.

So is the Ilkley grammar school an independent school now? I had wondered why children from Ilkley travel to Bradford by the hundreds (by train), if they have their own grammar school, but thought maybe they just prefer public to state...

Skipton is defo to far to travel every day, hm...

There is good thread in education in praise of the bog standard comprehensive. Maybe a read of that will give a more positive feeling towards comprehensives.

Yabu.

If you want the things you say you want then you need private education.

Even then do your research thoroughly...

even then there will be weed, and worse readily available

Ilkley Grammar is a comprehensive school OP ilkley.school-site2.net/

ilkley grammar school is a comprehensive. it gets good results as it has a good clientele - posh area. not because it is selective.
alot of the comps in bradford have grammar in the title. they used to be grammar schools. e.g. until recently salts was callled salt grammar school.
are you in north bradford?

Yep, North Bradford.

it is hard to get into ilkley i think, unless you move to ilkley or very near it.
if you are near train line - shipley, saltaire, bingley, train to skipton grammar is an option perhaps?
don't know exactly where you are but beckfoot in bingley has an increasingly good reputation. or if you are further east perhaps guiseley school over the border in leeds. i would look around and see if there are any comps you like.
a lot of people in bradford do go private because historically secondary education has not alwasy been the best but i think it has improved in recent years. woodhouse grove and bradford grammar are the main private ones i think.
a lot of the secondary comprehsives in bradford are very very big though.

If you actually live in the area and have something to do with the schools there, why don't you know anything about the admissions process?

I think there are a few things you won't get from a grammar or even private education. One is general knowledge, I am astonished at how ignorant many of our students are (at university) about great writers, thinkers, historical events, and we have one of the highest concentrations of private school educated students at our institution.

As for keeping them away from drugs, I think you are unlikely to do that by sending them to grammar school/private school.

It is true, however, that different schools have parents with different values, I took my daughter away from an excellent state primary as although the teaching was wonderful, there was no social mix whatsoever, and I didn't think the values of three-generation benefit culture with very low aspirations was great for my child, not great for the other children either but you can only choose for your own.

I think you also have to think how bright your children really are; if they are going to struggle in a very competitive grammar environment, better not go there. Not every child is suited to that at all, I have plenty of friends who have one child in a highly selective grammar and one in the local comp and in the main they say that the type of school suits their differing abilities and interests. Luckily most grammars are so oversubscribed, there's not as much chance of that happening as when the whole system was divided.

Ilkley Grqmmar School is a comprehensive. So obviously populated by ignorant pot heads.......

Secondary A lot of Comps are brilliant, my local Catholic Comp sends pupils to Oxbridge every year, the children are a delight.

A pupil this year has gone to study at Brown (Ivy league) this year! And by all accounts, the school is expecting a barrage of their pupils to apply to the Ivy leagues (Harvard, MIT etc) in the coming years.

Please don't tar all state Comps with the same brush, we have great children,and dedicated teaching staff in this country.

Was Hitler not King of Germany then?

Its is not a fact that rougher schools have more of a drugs problem OP.

I was schooled in both comprehensive schools and an upmarket fee paying private school. I remember drugs were more available in the private school because my friends had far more money to spend on drugs and such than my old friends at comprehensive. Grammer schools are no different from experience. Im not sure what you want to gain from your post tbh, as you seem more worried about your DCs choice of friends rather than school.

Again, I'm not saying grammar schools are drug-free haven, but...

www.drugscope.org.uk/resources/faqs/faqpages/is-drug-use-mainly-in-deprived-areas

I am a bit confused about the car-owning pupils TBH. Are you sure this a secondary school and not some sort of sixth-form college?

One car park for teachers/staff the other for pupils/visitors. Obviously not many pupils with cars, but those who came in their own car had to use the other car park...

Secondary it seems you who is slightly uneducated. Your link is about the relationship between deprived areas and drug use, not schools and drug use: unless the grammar is in a different area, surely they are equally likely to be surrounded by drug use as if they are in a local comprehensive? And, local drug use in the area doesn't mean your children will personally do drugs, I went to a comprehensive school and neither me or any of my friends from the school found ourselves doing anything illegal, it just wasn't our thing.

I am starting to think you are being provocative for the sake of it, send your children to grammar schools if you want to, but you can't prevent your children having the opportunity to access/see other teens doing drugs in the UK unless you seal them in a bubble.