What did you think o the School's Lottery on BBC2

[drosophila]

What did you think? Not being from this country I found it enlightening to see the historic school system explained.

I thought it was quite interesting

I thought the head of the school in Dagenham was very inspirational - the way he turned the school around. He looked very proud of his school and all the pupils looked v happy (same with the school in Southall).

This is always going to happen unfortunately. I went to secondary school in 1979 and my parents moved areas to get me into a better school. If anything I would say that schools are now trying much harder for status. This is shown by the Dagenham example. Also in Birmingham there are schools in areas of high immigration that are doing really well. At the end of the day if you do not want your child to go to a school you will not send them. Is that really such an eye-opener? I do hope the kids from Dudley do well and I do hope that if they change they take into account different years' levels from age 7 and not just the equivalent of the 11 plus that will still help those whose parents work the hardest with them.

I just think it is so sad that so many people who did badly in an exam when they were 11 had their whole lives mapped out for them. Loved the story of the guy who invented the radio thing coming from a Secondary Modern.

I work in the Civil Service and I have long suspected that Grammar Schools were invented just to provide us with civil servants.

I used to teach in that school in Southall and it was bloody hard work but really rewarding - staff are all fab and kids do really well, even when they've started off with not even a word of English.