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...

You are a wind up merchant and I claim my £5!

I hope you're not a teacher, OP

for what it's worth, i know several products of bradford comprehensive schools and as far as i know none of them are drug taking waste of space and several have gone to excellent unis.
i think the car park thing is most likely due to space - school car parks are never big enough for all the staff.

My son used to sit next to a boy for Physics, a nice quiet boy. One day he wasn't there; he'd been suspended for drug dealing. This was a top set in a very very good Comp.
My son also doesn't do drugs, doesn't even smoke and isn't interested in drinking, he's 15, has his own vices but sees those as a waste of money.

I think OP you need to find out more about the English school system, and especially the difference between schools with the word "Grammar" in the name and real grammar schools. All schools have some some students using drugs (if one says it doesn't, just as with bullying, run because its in denial).

Do you work in schools? If so I'm surprised you haven't spoken to colleagues about local schools.

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...

what an odd thing to comment on. A lot of companies have a staff car park and visitor car parks. ever tried parking at a university?

It is also worth considering bursaries. Many independent schools (including Bradford Grammar) offer bursaries of up to 100% of fees for pupils who do well in the exams but whose parents earn under a certain amount. Looking at Bradford's website they say that anyone earning under £16k can expect to get a substantial award.

I'm afraid that if you want to go to a school where there is zero drug use you are about 50 years too late. It's a generational thing, not a posh school/rough school thing.

sportsfanatic the hippies would be very sad to hear you say that. It's just different drugs.

OP do you know which university or universities have the biggest incidence of recreational drug use? You do seem a little naive.

By the way I agree with the OPs about drug use. Smoking weed is a prevalent as smoking roll ups! School is irrelevent.

sportsfanatic the hippies would be very sad to hear you say that. It's just different drugs. OP do you know which university or universities have the biggest incidence of recreational drug use? You do seem a little naive.

Naive? Moi? . No a maths slip on my part*. I should have said 60 years ago. As someone who was young in the 50s and 60s I know the hippies didn't get going until the late 60s (I know because I was there even though they say that if you remember the 60s you weren't there) and drug use, apart from tobacco, was not generally a school problem in the 50s.

• You have to excuse an oldie like me - the memory goes you know. I forgot we were in the second decade of the 21st century. Comes from being there in the 60s.....

Well...unless your children show a little extra talent at school, I would not recommed you pushing them. They could spend 5-7 years struggling to keep up with their clever peers. By all means, spend your money on tutoring, as all parents do, but not if your children are struggling to keep up at school now.

Grammar schools are there for clever and gifted children

I work in a really excellent private school and my dh works in an inner city school - both have problems.

In my school money buys a lot more drugs/smoking/peer pressure and eating disorders

In dh's school the lack of money brings with it problems related to poverty/violence and crime.

all schools have problems - you have to figure out which problems you are prepared to deal with.

No, I'm obviously not a teacher, that would be sad! My work does not require me to know about the English school system.

Re car parks at Unis. Actually, no, the Unis I have seen (though mostly continent, not UK) didn't have separate car parks for staff/students. Is this the norm in England?

Oh, and if drugs are in fact a problem in all UK schools/Unis some way or another, it must be more of a cultural thing than education/class thing... So it's not just studies claiming UK is the worst of all European countries... That is really sad.

oh dear

I have just come home from Canada after a five year stay, I wouldn't have complained about the Canadian school system that my DCs were being educated in in the same way you are complaining about the UK system.

Just saying.

I'm British, why can't I complain? That's what we do ;-) ...

Also, I differentiate: In my oppionion the primary school system is brilliant, but I'm concerned about seconday schools. (In the country I was brought up, it was the other way round).

All I'm saying is that this isn't the country you grew up in, so you have to make the best of what's on offer here.

Re car parks at Unis. Actually, no, the Unis I have seen (though mostly continent, not UK) didn't have separate car parks for staff/students. Is this the norm in England?

I don't know if its the norm but I don't think its uncommon. Can't see why anyone would think it indicates any sort of problem. That's if the students are even allowed cars - AFAIK undergrads aren't everywhere. If you want your kid to be mobile in Oxbridge they need a bike.

I find it hard to believe that there aren't drugs used by students in most secondary schools in Europe too.
Most Unis don't have enough room for staff parking, and charge a hefty amount (even to staff for parking). Britain is a crowded little island. Actually Oxford and Cambridge strongly advise you not to bring a car, but to use a bike instead.
Personally I don't think Britain is the worst European country, its fine.

So what is it you exactly want to know OP? Where to park your car when your children go to University? Why the UK doesn't address its drug problem in schools? How to get your child into a suitable school? Why is state primary better than state secondary? Can you be clear, and maybe someone will help?

What the ladies of MN think so you can put it in your article?

.
Popcorn anyone?
(Why the heck don't we have a popcorn emoticon already?)

^Seriously, the teacher just recommends the kids she/he likes the most, they go to Grammar school, in a giant bubble where no alcohol drugs or sex can get to them. Its great.

See, I can joke too OP.^

Well, I', sorry but that is more or less the REALITY in the country I grew up in. Teachers recommend which school is suitable for the pupil and it's then up to parents to chose. Yes, there was alcohol, and (responsible) sex, but no drugs. We might have heard of someone who heard of someone from a comprehensive school who took them but even there it was an exception.