How are Grammar schools so much better than comprehensives if they get the same funding?

[Karma1387]

Me and my partner are in a situation where we are looking to relocate in order to move to a Grammar school area. This is going to involve us both having to find new jobs and coordinate a house move at the same time.

Some of my family disagree with our decision to move for the sake of grammar school and don't see how they can be better than a normal comprehensive school.

I am hoping some people on here will have some knowledge on how grammar schools achieve so much better than comprehensives?

Also anyone with experience with grammar schools they could share? From what I have read the class sizes aren't much different to comprehensives and they get the same funding. Is it literally just a case of because they do the 11+ they tend to only take on the more academically inclined kids. Does this translate to less bad behaviour etc compared to comprehensive schools?

The move is going to be stressful with us both trying to find new jobs plus moving further away from both our families I want it to be worth it! Our local comprehensive is awful for results and we want to give the kids the best opportunities.

Personally I would rather homeschool and fully keep them out of the school system but my partner is very against this and is determined we need to move to a grammar school area so any advise to aid our discussion would be amazing!

Are we being unreasonable to relocate for the possibility of grammar school?

Falling rolls can be a benefit (as long as the fall isn't too steep and the school closes). And things change quickly. My nephew is six years older than my DD and couldn't get a place at his parents' preferred catchment school. My DD did get a place there, and we were out of catchment.

I was equally surprised. Don't get me wrong he loves maths and is very good at it but the idea of my own kids learning it at that age I hate.

I very much doubt I will win the battle of homeschooling. Hence exploring the best schools, debating grammars etc.

Although not sure how my partner will feel about me not going back to my career if we send the kids to school 🙈 luckily a fair few years before I have to worry about that!

@Karma1387 You started off by wanting a grammar school area. My area is - Bucks. If dc isn’t at primary, it’s incredibly difficult to judge if dc will get the required score or not. How would you gauge this if home educated? Or would you hot house for the exams which are in the second week of the autumn term in y6? If dc are not up to speed, you might struggle with the exam. So home Ed and hothousing are at different ends of your philosophy I think. Most parents get tutors. How would you feel about that?

Of course the grammars get better results as they select dc! Bit of a no brainer there. In Bucks, they are all outstanding and even the good (RLS currently good) is a fantastic school. However, the big issue is what school if dc doesn’t pass. Some secondaries are very good here (Waddesdon) but have tight admission criteria. You must always know what the alternatives are. I’d let dc go to primary school because then you will fairly easily know if they are grammar material or not. But grammar entrance and laid back home ed don’t go together - your DH is being sensible!

Yes we will be exploring admissions for out of area. The one thing me and my partner agree on is not sending them to our local primary so worst case if we apply for an out of catchment and don't get in I can always homeschool whilst waiting for a place.

Year 1 national curriculum includes halves and quarters. Could teach that quite effectively with a pizza! Actually I remember a friend's DH having a go with quiche on a French beach when our kids were around that age.

Home education and grammar are complete opposites I do agree. My partner is the one super keen on them hence he wants them to also attend a very good primary school.

An awful lot to consider based off the many many replies on here!

My opinion on what kids learn is schools may be unreasonable based on the information I get from family. But desire to homeschool and be with my children doesn't change just because they can be taught these things from a pizza.

But as I have said many times I may want to homeschool but my partner will likely push for schools so it is more about finding the right school, possibly moving area or commuting kids to school and deciding on if we are aiming for grammar or decent conprehensive.

Do you think so? As the government grant's per child and a class needs a teacher whether it's got 15 kids or 30, I'd be a bit worried about budgets and amalgamated classes.

I agree about unpredictable changes! BREXIT happened between my DC being born and going to primary. Our massively oversubscribed local primary was suddenly much more accessible.

Home education and home schooling are not the same, so if you go down that route, you will need to decide which you are opting for.

You can just look it up if you're so minded. There's a national curriculum and it's all online. I'm secondary so I just went online to check as it's a while since my own DC was in year 1.

Is your nephew not happy at school then?

I don't overthink it as I know its highly unlikely to happen unless we can't get DS into a primary we like and agree on.

If it becomes an option I would most likely do a mix depending on age.

They are not better, they select an academically able cohort whom they can then challenge more without having to worry about those of lower academic ability keeping up. Also, children who find school work interesting and/or easy are less likely to misbehave as they are more engaged, so behaviour can be less problematic.

Non selective schools have to cater for a wider ability range including kids who will struggle badly with every single aspect of the syllabus, for whom the absolute best outcome is a grade 4.

This does not mean a grammar school is "better". Your average student who is on track for perhaps a 5 or 6, may actually do worse in a grammar than in a comprehensive where the pace is suitable for them. The teacher will not slow down to accomodate them in a grammar as they are the minority.

Grammar schools get very high grades from children who are already that way inclined. Don't confuse that with better teaching or a magical ability to extract top grades from a mediocre kid.

I think falling rolls can be a benefit but of course they're not always a benefit. It depends on how oversubscribed the school is.

My nephew loves school, he is even part of a maths club! My other niece and nephew not so much and my brother works in a primary school and doesn't speak highly of it.

Its very clear it depends on the child, how they are as an individual as well as the school itself and the teachers.

I suppose something else is that children spend only about 20% of their waking hours at school so you still get the 80% to influence them.

Yes of course if you don't work then yes I imagine you get a good 50 waking hours a week to influence your children. Although thats assuming they dont do any other clubs etc.

Not sure what that has to do with whether schools are good for them or the impact of putting them into a good school vs a rubbish one.

Just because my child only spends 32.5 hours a week at a school out of day 92 hours doesn't mean I would want them in a rubbish environment for that time. If I am making my children go somewhere for that many hours a week I want it to be the best place I can.

A few things to help your discussions:

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/ (you can search by school name and by local authority) caution: performance is by no means everything

http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report Ofsted reports caution: most of these reports are for inspections under the last inspection framework

https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/homepage Parentview, run by Ofsted; parents are invited to comment on their child's school as part of the inspection process *caution: nolonger very useful as responses prior to 10 November 2025 have been deleted as they were collected when the last inspection framework was being used

School visits really matter, and need to happen when the pupils are at school. They enable you to assess the basics. Does the school welcome your request to visit? Is the school welcoming during your visit? Do the children seem happy? Are the children enthusiastic about the school when they talk to you? Are they articulate, confident, and polite? What's on the walls? Are the corridors orderly when the children are moving about the building? How do the staff talk to the children - the teachers and classroom assistants, the office, the caretaker? What are the outside spaces like? Are the staff and head professional and relaxed with one another?

Edited to add PS about Patentview

Fair enough - I was just making the point that the family's almost always the main influence on a primary age child, whether they go to school or not.

I did mostly like school myself though. I can understand it would be a much more fraught decision if you'd thoroughly disliked it.

Actually my child isn't the biggest fan of education although she does enjoy the social aspects of school.

I assume the question about are the students enthusiastic when they talk to you was a typo? I assume schools aren't letting random parents go in and talk to young children??

We use the first and second link for a lot of our research. Thank you for the third.

I do appreciate my own opinion of school does affect my opinion on my kids school. I hated it especially secondary but I appreciate my kids could love it so it is a hard decision!

@Karma1387 You could not roll up into Bucks and choose the best primary school though. Contrary to popular belief here, we have zillions of houses being built. Some schools take dc from quite a few miles away. Others, from a tight catchment. Parents plan wheee they need to be - when dc are babies. So if you want a grammar area, go before you need a primary school. Otherwise you are unlikely to get the best ones. They are full.

No typo. If parents are being shown round with their child by the head, of course they talk to the pupils, as the children would talk to any other visitor. It's part of the educational experience.

Sorry you already have the links I sent. I assumed from the nature of your questions you were at the beginning of the process.

And yet most of the replies here are that its insane to move based on grammar school before kids are even at Primary!

This is what prompted this post as if we want a grammar school option we would prefer to move sooner so they can get into a good primary so they dont all have to relocate.

Wow not sure I would be happy with my child talking to random adults. Maybe year 5/6 but not the younger years. Do they have to have parental permission to let outside parents talk to them?

Id class educational visitors as different as I assume they have been vetted and dbs checked?

We have been looking at schools for a little while as my partner wanted us to move back to Essex so we did a lot of comparing the Essex schools vs the schools near us.