To wonder what Teresa May's plans for secondary moderns are

[Neverthelessshepersisted]

That's it really.
I am a bit disappointed with her tbh.

Not if they spend the yr6 and yr7 being bored out of their minds, they dont. They are the future's HRT payers, are likely to work hard and keep us all in our old age. Not to mention be the future inventors, politicians and policy makers.

Bloody hell being in the top 10% doesn't even necessarily give you an A*, let alone suggest that all the hopes of mankind rest on your shoulders.

Yeah, well. If they are going to become the high flyers of the future they need to be a bit robust. And I don't buy this "constantly bored" thing. Possibly in maths for a proper maths whizz if the school doesn't differentiate properly. But in English? History? What's stopping them taking it deeper and further? Writing more? Thinking more?

Obviously in an ideal world every child should have their own personalized timetable. Obviously.

But we don't live in an ideal world.

I think parents of clever children get a bit overexcited sometimes. I know how they feel. One of my children is particularly talented in something, and I really had to stop myself being a bit of a dick about it when he was younger. Fortunately he is very level headed and saved me from myself.............

Naughty Bertrand :)

I agree re robustness...

My point is though bertrand that would be high flyers don't always get the chance to get good exam results due to the comp system.
As for being robust - it's very difficult to swim against the tide. When all your friends are aiming for Cs often children don't see the necessity of doing further work. "the teacher said we only had to do this" . You assume that there is sufficient differentiation, which sadly isn't always the case.

Although it is indeed possible to get to uni from all comps, from some it's easier than others.
My children's comp doesn't send many to uni each year.
I have sat at a sixth form choices interview where the head of science suggested that a combination of maths, physics and chemistry was "too hard" and the didn't recommend that combination. Had I not been such an aware parent I might have listened.

Thing is, in real life I have never come across this "oh, you only need Cs" attitude. I don't doubt it exists. But it really could only happen in a truly bad school. And most schools aren't truly bad. And, frankly, if a child of mine said "oh, we only have to do this" their feet would not touch the ground. And neither would the teacher's

And anyway, if a child is lucky enough to find schoolwork easy, I would expect him to understand that other's don't, and they need more of the teacher's time than he does. As I said, in an ideal world, things would be different. But it isn't. So we are where we are.

To be fair though to hive, it has been pointed out above that not all schools are good and not all parents are aware.

high flyers don't always get the chance to get good exam results due to the comp system.

Well let's see what a progress 8 score of 0.3 means. It means that a kid in a selective school gets AAAAAAAA and the kid at a non-selective school only gets AAAAAAAA.

Shame that their chances of getting good exam results were dashed, eh?

B&R you make a very elequont agruement FOR grammar schools. According to you bright dcs are " lucky" , less deserving of the teacher's time and should be robust enough to deal with this unfairness. And you wonder why some of us dont want to send our dcs to mixed ability schools....??

If that grade difference was a c/d though it would be thought to matter, able dcs are being discriminated against being told their grade difference doesnt matter as much as someones elses. Not nice.

"If that grade difference was a c/d though it would be thought to matter, able dcs are being discriminated against being told their grade difference doesnt matter as much as someones elses. Not nice."

Well, do you think that getting a c instead of a d is more or less important and life changing than getting an a instead of an a*? Be absolutely honest............

"According to you bright dcs are " lucky" "

Are you saying they aren't?

And you are ignoring my repeated "we have to deal with the situation we are in, not the situation we wish we were in......"

Given how private schools dominate admissions to the best unis and jobs yes. That is what is being competed against and every little helps.

Bs to As As to A* s or whatever the equivalent is now.

Bs to As can be important. As to A*s not so much.
Ds to Cs? Life changing.

In your opinion.

In a string of GCSEs some kids at grammar will get As instead of Bs alongside those unimportant A*s you speak of.

Then there are Alevels to think off. Every little counts.

I don't see what the problem is with highly able children to 'help' others who need a bit extra support (at least acc to the version some parents here are suggesting is happening a lot). What is the issue with that? Surely it's a positive life lesson for a child, to keep in mind the needs of others?

I was about to google medicine entry requirements...yes it could be important. Also you can resit to change a d to a c. If you get an A when you were hoping for an A ☆ not a chance.

The situation we are in is that entry to Oxbridge, medicine and law is more dominated by privately educated individuals than at anytime in the last 20 years. We know that very able dcs do better when educated with peers of similar ability (unless a very outstanding comp) perhaps because of attitudes like yours and nobles. Until these attitudes change this will continue to be the case. So why not give more state educated young people a bite of the cherry ?

What about the less able, dont they need to help people too ? Perhaps they should spend their maths lessons in reception ?

But the point is the school was not covering the material sufficient to get the A* or even A.
I'd like to see much bigger schools to cover much wider catchments. Otherwise children in comp schools in some areas do well, and are exposed to cultural activities, yet those in some areas just don't have the numbers to support these activities.
I think you would have benefits from both systems.

What is wrong in the principal of putting pupils with their own academic criteria together in one institution !

A three types of school concept allows for the brightest to be placed together and therefore feed of each other in the 1st type of school.

Why is it Politically incorrect to suggest the middle group of ability pupils is put out most by the 'corrosive' nature of some pupils behaviour !

The second type of school could be for middle ability pupils and those that are prepared to try.

The third type of school would concentrate on the large numbers of pupils that are wasting their time , teachers and other pupils time in traditional academic environment.

I am all for learning to think of others, not when you should be doing core subjects though ( or for the whole of the summer term)

Flying we have some of those third type of schools- called pupil refferal units, they have good funding, small class sizes.They do pretty well, of course we dont have enough of them.

If that grade difference was a c/d though it would be thought to matter,

Ok, because that's the choice you're making. If you are arguing for grammar schools against the status quo, then you are taking Cs from some kids and giving them Ds in order to present a some kids with a couple more A*s.