"school snobbery"

[dinkybinky]

I think it?s hysterical that some people think that if you child doesn?t attend a Grammar school or selective independent then they?re not academic. The level of ?school snobbery? that goes on is quite bewildering sometimes.

Reading this thread and what people who have children at all different types of school are saying, I don't think some people actually grasp what a state grammar education is.

They are not schools with better teachers, they are not schools with smaller class sizes, they are not schools that have better facilities. My child that is at a highly selective GS is taught in class sizes of 30 for everything except maths, which depends on what set you are in. They learn in a listed building that needs a huge amount of investment to maintain it, but it gets the bare minimum from the council/government, gets next to no pupil premium money despite having a higher than average number of children who are on the autistic spectrum (I realise that's not what pupil premium is intended for).

The only difference I can tell is that our local GS has a smaller range of GCSE and A Level subjects to choose from than the comp does. Everything there is about focussing on the academic subjects, there's loads of maths, sciences and Latin, and little in the way of art, technology, design type subjects. And the comp offers more trips abroad than the GS does.

In my opinion both schools are equally as good as each other, they are just focused on different things. I will have a child at each next year, both of whom were working at level 5 in a state primary by halfway through year six, but only one of them is suited to the narrow curriculum that is offered at the GS.

People really need to stop getting so worked up about GSs. They are not that amazing!

god this thread is full of shit, i wish i hasn't posted on it

touch typing, s is next to d
they taught you that at rough comprehensive when you know, you were a bit thick

Laqueen I admire your confidence. IMO there is no such thing as 100% certainty that any child will pass the 11+. Of course some children are very likely to pass but anyone can have a bad day or make a couple of silly mistakes due to nerves, or even over confidence. That's one of the problems with the 11+.

I don't know how some of you would cope if you had a child with severe learning disabilities, I really don't. You really need to get your head out of your own arseholes

I have a child with Autism who attends a special school. That provision meets her educational needs and is wonderful.

OwlLady
You sound close to breaking point, are you ok?

owl lady- I'm sorry the thread upsets you.

laQueen, you seem to be answering questions I haven't asked- spooky!

No, I am not okay at all in all honesty but tomorrow is another day

I just cannot stand people making out their children are superior to other peoples though. I couldn't give a shit what school they went to, or their needs. All children deserve a chance in life. Society is unfair enough as it is

OwlLady
Have an unMN (((hug)))

I imagine this thread probably feels very frustrating if you have a child with SLD and are having to fight for support in the current climate.

Well I have no idea whether it is down to snobbery or not, but the simple fact is that if you live in a (non-super-selective, non-top- 5 percent only) grammar school area, then your child is probably not terribly academic, are they?

Otherwise they'd be in the top 25 30 percent, or whatever, and they'd be there. Unless you are so principled against the GS system that you refused to send them, no matter how dire the local secondary modern is.

But that hardly ever happens. Because people tend to be principled in theory but not in practice, where things like this are concerned.

Wow, snobs don't like being called snobs, do they ?

It's strange because I really don't think there's anything wrong with being picky about which school your children go to.

LaQueen, it depends on wether your child is going for a superselective or a bog standard grammar. If we lived in any other area of Kent I would not have bothered with tutoring my girls but where we are they have to have pretty much perfect 11 plus scores with no margin for the smallest error.

Queenie, I know my facts about postwar grammar education really extremely well. The high levels of social mobility after the war were due to a great number of factors and most of them had really very little to do with grammar schools.

And you missed my point entirely. You might be able to find the past papers in any WHSmith. But bright children from very poor backgrounds are very unlikely to seek them out, precisely because they DON'T have the parents who see that kind of aspiration as legitimate and possible. That is why grammar schools are divisive - they filter primarily on grounds of class and parental education, not ability.

I know one ultra snobby mother who basks in the glory of her clever DD going to grammar school.

I wouldn't mind, but I'm not sure her DD is happy being a performing monkey, playing her instrument, singing and now going to a different school to her friends.

Her DD is lovely and DD1 would be great friends with her, but it's never going to happen as being friends with DD1 is worth -social peeking order points

And since the day she arrived in the village she's been social climbing.

Libillue (sorry if I can't spell)

You are right that grammars are now a MC getto although I might argue with you about the past.

Now schools don't teach the 11+ and councils won't pay bus fares, it's only motivated better of parents who's DCs apply.

I don't understand why wanting the best education for your child (be it grammar, independent or outstanding state comp), is wrong, or snobby or whatever other accusations have been levied on this thread.

Some people have a shitty, superior attitude about it, I agree, but most don't. They have simply chosen what is right for their DC, live in the "right" area, are the "right" religion or are able to pay for it.

I will never apologise for doing what I think is best for my DS. He's the only one I have, and will ever have. If I had any choice (and I appreciate that some people really don't) I would never send him to a crap school of any sort, just to satisfy my socialist urges or so that I could use it as some kind of weird boast about my "principles".

One anecdote doesn't disprove the statistics, CecilyP, but I'm pleased for your DS.

No, I am sure it doesn't, but what statistics are you referring to?

I don't understand why wanting the best education for your child (be it grammar, independent or outstanding state comp), is wrong, or snobby

It isn't wrong, it is snobbery.