If bright children do well wherever they go, why is everyone so desperate to get their children into the highest performing grammars/private schools?

[chuckb4ss]

I don't believe that if you put a child in a poorly performing comprehensive school that requires improvement, that they would come out with the exact same A level grades that they would if they had attended one of the top private/grammar schools. (Not saying that A levels are the be all and end all, that's a separate discussion).

I hear all the time that if your child is naturally bright, they will do well wherever they go. If that is the case, then why the competition to get children into the best performing schools?

One for another thread but there are just way too many failing or mediocre schools. I should start another thread..what can we do about this as parents?

I agree with you. Also parental encouragement also makes a huge difference, not just being bright. Having high expectations, and crucially encouraging them to think comptetively e.g. be your best, stretch yourself etc.

I think its about and to degrees the social environment/social networks; smaller classes, calmer environment but kids can adapt too. Enrichment activities can (if you can afford them) be bought outside school. I'm thinking more of where parents overstretch to go private or where the child has a very long journey to school.

countingthedays we can all choose to do exactly as we wish, and, I'm sure, you do a grand job. BUT we can also choose to be snobbish about other people's choices.

I was not brought up by a single mother with 8 siblings in poverty, that does not preclude me from being able to understand and help kids who do come from that background. It is called being human. It is also called being professional- trained and well-read. I do not need to have had my arm chopped off to understand that it would be agonising.

For the record, I'm not anyone's bitch, it's, you know, humour. Have you come across this?

'If private school is a waste of money for those who choose it, then why bother abolishing them? If the teaching, outcomes etc don’t put kids at an advantage then why not let people choose?'

Even if it doesn't put the kids tin private school at an advantage, it means that you remove a set of brighter kids with involved parents and that has an effect on the kids who are left. It makes it harder to have an academic top set if there aren't enough true top set kids left to make one. It stops comprehensives being true comps and turns them into secondary moderns with a few high achievers attached who they aren't necessarily that well placed to cater for.

@shoebe. exactly that! In forgotten towns, where is the zip and movement going to come from if Tesco s the most driving force in your town? tesco's implulse is to strangle competitors, and they do it subtly, They killed a town center I know well by repaving it to make market space. It looks pretty but no one goes there any more.

and that I was very poor (I wasn't)

Notwaving - why do you care if other people think you are poor?

Naturally bright kids can do well anywhere. Average kids need extra help and support to excel. That’s what private schools can do. Educate beyond natural ability...

I'm reasonably bright (top 500 in the country when I graduated high school 'back in the day') and I went to my country's equivalent of a comp. We had no uniform, there was not much discipline and the school didn't care whether or not we showed up. The laxity was an advantage for me, because I was super-motivated so the teachers invested lots of time in me. However, several clever kids at my school fell through the cracks because no-one was making them do the work. They received poor grades and have little financial independence now 20-odd years later - we're still in touch, which is nice but I feel a bit sad for them sometimes as I think it's limited their options in life. I was just lucky to be motivated (aka A-type and probably a bit too competitive ) - and also I had super-strict parents of whom I was scared. My older girl is bright but lacks motivation at times, so we're sending her to a private school with a good record for academic achievement (despite not being academically selective). We'll see whether or not it suits her - but based on my school-mates' experience I want to at least try a private school.

I would like to make a difference to the aspirations of local students who don't have any sense of how far they could go, and have volunteered my free assistance to the local sixth form to help informally with writing personal statements and researching courses of interest, to th head of the sixth form. I am a qualified teacher, and I received no response whatsoever. Not even an out of office we might get back to you. It said everything to me about that school's mindset.

So how would your help differ from the advice given by the person with UCAS responsibilities? or the outreach from universities?

xingming I'm a stem ambassador for my company, at 42 female and Asian and have a stellar career background. Not C level but senior enough to have a global strategic role and influence at C level. I'm offering X3 days work experience all expenses paid with exposure to meeting companies like Amazon and coming with me to corporate events. I've offered it to my local comp and their response is they don't have the time to advertise because they're short staffed and don't have a career person. There are structural systematic I issues

So I will offer to another school but widen my net beyond comp and secondary moderns to maybe private schools who might want to work with a multibillion company who is offering work experience.

xingming it's great that you want to help your local community but schools and colleges maybe wary. They will get lots of unsolicited emails offering this service.
What are your credentials and qualifications? Schools will often have a qualified careers adviser in place and possibly someone else dealing with UCAS. Plus local universities will do lots of that free of charge.
Schools and colleges are being encouraged to used appropriately qualified staff to deliver careers guidance.

cookiedough all school are supposed to have a named careers leader so try finding out who that person is. They have a statutory responsibility to offer encounters with employers.
Also, try finding out who the local enterprise co-ordinator is as they will provide a link to schools and colleges.

Thanks SueEllenMishke. That's good to know!!

Dapplegrey, I don't care if people think I'm poor. I care that they think state schools are for poor people.