Following on from various threads re selective/GS or state education

[wildirishrose]

It would be interesting to see what work children are covering in these schools to see how they vary. For example my DD has covered such and such in maths and English in a super selective GS year 9.

My DS's are in Y6 and Y1 in fab state primary school, at the end of our garden the two children are in a great priavte school Y3 and Y5 and from what I have seen of them and their work eg: spellings, reading books etc they are pretty much on a par.

Our babysitter 1st yr A leves a super selective GS is a total maths and pysics genius, doing something like further or pure maths A level! Way beyond me! But it suits him and has always done and the level of work he does it very high and he was in all the top sets from 11-15.

What is is you are trying to ascertain here?

I have a child at a super-selective and a child in the top band of a comprehensive school and generally the syllabus is the same.

I think in the grammar they tend to cover most of the work in class, with little homework while DD2 in the comp seems to get rather a lot of homework. In the grammar they also tend to go off a tangent from time to time and talk about stuff that is not necessarily on the curriculum but of interest to the teacher and the students.

There is more of an ability range in DD2's class, so they tend to spend longer on the basics and set extension stuff for the very able pupils to do in class or in the case of maths, at maths club. Occasionally the whole class do A' level standard extension materials in maths. They are a very very able group in English and some of the work they do is nearer to AS level at least as they are getting bored.

The comprehensive teachers tend to be much more innovative (and work a lot harder!) in the way they teach, using media, role plays, games etc - the grammar is more traditional and boring. Parts of the grammar syllabus such as science seem identical to mine 30 years ago and taught exactly the same!

I know severals girls at a very well known very selective independent which gets amazing results. IMO they are worked much harder than at the grammar again with more traditional teaching methods and it seems to be a hard slog!

My DS is in the top set at a non-selective prep with a good reputation for results / entry into top senior schools. I work in a state school which covers the same school years as the Prep.

DS generally is introduced to certain subjects & themes a year ahead of the kids in the top sets at my school - I'm talking about Mathematical concepts like simultaneous equations, trigonometry, certain set texts in English and so on.

DS does get a lot of homework which often has to be completed and handed in the the next day. At the school I work at, homework is due in on a weekly basis for most subjects - although friends of mine with children at other state schools in the area tell me their DC's have daily homework too.

I should add that DS is in Year 8.

For perspective I should add that both at the comprehensive (top set) and in the grammar they did trig and simultaneous equations in year 8 - in fact they did the latter in year 7 at the comp. The English teacher at the comp also gives them stuff which she says is A' level standard so they don't get bored. I think it it depends on the teacher, the school, the standard of the pupils - lots of factors.

My DS is in top set for maths at a non-selective private prep (primary) school in Y6.

Some stuff I know he has done:

basic algebra including basic simultaneous equations
square roots and powers, but not fractional powers or adding powrs (i.e. xa*xb = X^(a+b))
nets
ratios
area of triangles and quadrilaterals

I think nets, ratios and areas are all covered in the year 5?

I think ds had covered the things joanByers mentions ivy the end of year 6 in a state primary.

I think it depends on the school tbh. DD2's state primary only taught up to KS5, nowadays they go up to KS6 in maths as many of the primaries do around here (borough in central London). DD2 did complain when she started at her comp that a lot of stuff was new to her, but not to the other kids in her maths class.

My DD1 had absolutely appalling maths teaching in an independent school until age 11. I gave her a KS2 maths paper at the beginning of year 6 and she got virtually every question wrong. She got into a super selective (luckily it didn't test her on maths for entry) and got an A at GCSE but it has always been by far her weakest subject and she got A* in the 3 sciences.

Really there is no difference between private, GS or state education. from what I can see the difference in results is purely down to intake.

Seeker, DS in a private prep, they covered it in the beginning of year 5, they had to know all this stuff for 11 plus.